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Gordon Thomas Whyburn | |
|---|---|
| Born | (1904-01-07)January 7, 1904 |
| Died | September 8, 1969(1969-09-08) (aged 65) |
| Nationality | American |
| Known for | Topology |
| Awards | Chauvenet Prize (1938) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Mathematician |
| Doctoral advisor | R. L. Moore |
| Doctoral students | |
Gordon Thomas Whyburn (January 7, 1904,Lewisville, Texas – September 8, 1969,Charlottesville, Virginia) was anAmericanmathematician who worked ontopology.[1]
Whyburn studied at theUniversity of Texas, Austin, where he earned a bachelor's degree in chemistry in 1925. Under the influence of his teacherRobert Lee Moore, Whyburn continued to study at Austin but changed to mathematics and earned a master's degree in mathematics in 1926 and then a PhD in 1927. After two years as an adjunct professor at U. of Texas, with the aid of aGuggenheim fellowship Whyburn spent the academic year 1929/1930 inVienna withHans Hahn and inWarsaw withKuratowski andSierpinski. After the fellowship expired, Whyburn became a professor atJohns Hopkins University.
From 1934, he was a professor at theUniversity of Virginia, where he modernized the mathematics department and spent the rest of his career. He was chair of the department until his first heart attack in 1966;Edward J. McShane joined the department in 1935, andGustav A. Hedlund was a member of the department from 1939 to 1948. In the academic year 1952/1953 Whyburn was a visiting professor atStanford University. In 1953–54, he served as president of theAmerican Mathematical Society.
Whyburn was awarded theChauvenet Prize in 1938 for his paper "On the Structure of Continua",[2] and was elected a member of theNational Academy of Sciences in 1951. His doctoral students includeJohn L. Kelley andAlexander Doniphan Wallace.[3]
His brotherWilliam Marvin Whyburn (1901–1972) was a mathematics professor atUCLA and became known for his work on ordinary differential equations.[4]
