Edwin E. Moise

Infobox Scientist
box_width =
name = Edwin Evariste Moise


image_size = 150px
caption =
birth_date = birth date|1918|12|22
birth_place = New Orleans, Louisiana
death_date = dda|1998|12|18|1918|12|22
death_place = New York, New York
fields = Mathematician
workplaces = University of Michigan
Institute for Advanced Study
Harvard University
Queens College
alma_mater = University of Texas
doctoral_advisor = R. L. Moore
doctoral_students = James Munkres
Peter Shalen
known_for = 3-manifolds
SMSG
footnotes =

Edwin Evariste Moise (pron-en|moʊ'iːz) (December 22, 1918 – December 18, 1998)] ] was an American mathematician and mathematics education reformer. After his retirement from mathematics he became a literary critic of 19th century English poetry and had several notes published in that field.]

Early life and education

Edwin E. Moise was born December 22, 1918 in New Orleans, Louisiana.cite journal |year=1999 |month=May |title=Mathematics People |journal=Notices of the American Mathematical Society |volume=46 |issue=5 |pages=573–575 |id=ISSN|0002-9920 |url=http://www.ams.org/notices/199905/people.pdf |accessdate=2008-09-06 |quote="incorrectly gives December 25 as death date"] He graduated from Tulane University in 1940. He worked as a cryptanalyst and Japanese translator for the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations during World War II.]

He received his Ph.D. degree in mathematics from the University of Texas in 1947. His dissertation was titled "An indecomposable continuum which is homeomorphic to each of its nondegenerate subcontinua," a topic in continuum theory, and was written under the direction of R. L. Moore. In his dissertation Moise coined the term pseudo-arc.]

Career

Moise taught at the University of Michigan from 1947 to 1960. He was James B. Conant Professor of education and mathematics at Harvard University from 1960 to 1971. He held a Distinguished Professorship at Queens College, City University of New York from 1971 to 1987.

Moise started working on 3-manifolds while at the University of Michigan. During 1949–1951 he held an appointment at the Institute for Advanced Study during which he proved that every 3-manifold can be triangulated.

Moise joined the School Mathematics Study Group when it started in 1958, as a member of the geometry writing team. The team produced several course outlines and sample pages for a 10th grade geometry course, and then Moise and Floyd L. Downs wrote a geometry textbook, based on the team's approach, that was published in 1964. The textbook used metric postulates instead of Euclid's postulates, a controversial approach supported by some mathematicians such as Saunders Mac Lane but opposed by others such as Alexander Wittenberg and Morris Kline.

Moise was a president of the Mathematical Association of America, a vice-president of the American Mathematical Society, a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and was on the Executive Committee of the International Commission on Mathematical Instruction.

Moise retired from Queen's College in 1987 and started a second career studying 19th century English poetry. He had six short notes of literary criticism published.

Moise died in New York City on December 18, 1998, aged 79.

elected publications

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Notes

External links

*MathGenealogy|id=306

Persondata
NAME = Moise, Edwin Evariste
ALTERNATIVE NAMES =
SHORT DESCRIPTION = Mathematician
DATE OF BIRTH = December 22, 1918
PLACE OF BIRTH = New Orleans, Louisiana, United States
DATE OF DEATH = December 18, 1998
PLACE OF DEATH = New York, New York