- Erik Christopher Zeeman
Infobox Scientist
name = Professor Sir Erik Christopher Zeeman
box_width = 26em
image_width = 150px
caption =
birth_date = Birth date and age|1925|2|4
birth_place =Japan
death_date =
death_place =
residence =United Kingdom
citizenship = British
nationality =
ethnicity =
field =Mathematics
work_institutions =University of Cambridge ,England University of Warwick , England Oxford University, EnglandGresham College , England
alma_mater =University of Cambridge , England
doctoral_advisor =Shaun Wylie
doctoral_students =David Epstein Jenny Harrison Terry Wall
known_for =Catastrophe theory Geometric topology Singularity theory
author_abbrev_bot =
author_abbrev_zoo =
prizes =Senior Whitehead Prize (1982) Faraday Medal (1988) (2006)
religion =
footnotes =Fellow of the Royal Society Sir Erik Christopher Zeeman FRS (born
4 February 1925 ), is aJapan ese-born Britishmathematician known for his work ingeometric topology andsingularity theory .Zeeman's main contributions to mathematics were in
topology , particularly inknot theory , thepiecewise linear category, anddynamical systems .His thesis at Cambridge university described a new theory termed "dihomology", an algebraic structure associated to a topological space, containing both homolgy and cohomolgy, introducing what is now known as the Zeeman spectral sequence. This was studied by Clint McCrory in his 1972 Brandeis thesis following a suggestion of
Dennis Sullivan that one make "a general study of the Zeeman spectral sequence to see how singularities in a space perturbPoincare duality ". This in turn led to the discovery ofintersection homology byRobert MacPherson andMark Goresky atBrown University where McCrory was appointed in 1974.Zeeman is known among the wider scientific public for his contribution to, and spreading awareness of
catastrophe theory , which was due initially to another topologist,René Thom , and for his Christmas lectures about mathematics on television in 1978. He was especially active encouraging the application of mathematics, and catastrophe theory in particular, to biology and behavioural sciences.Early life
Zeeman was born in Japan to a Danish father, Christian Zeeman, and a British mother.He and his parents moved to
England one year after his birth. After being educated atChrist's Hospital inHorsham ,West Sussex , he served as aFlying Officer with theRoyal Air Force from 1943 to 1947. He studiedmathematics at Christ's College, Cambridge, but had forgotten much of his high-school mathematics while serving for the air force. He received an MA andPhD (the latter under the supervision ofShaun Wylie from theUniversity of Cambridge , and became a Fellow ofGonville and Caius College .Academic career
After working at Cambridge (during which he spent a year abroad at
University of Chicago and Princeton as a Harkness Fellow) and theInstitut des Hautes Études Scientifiques , he founded the Mathematics Department and Mathematics Research Centre at the newUniversity of Warwick in 1964. In his own words:"I was 38 and had developed some fairly strong ideas on how to run a department and create a Mathematics Institute: I wanted to combine the flexibility of options that are common in most American universities, with the kind of tutorial care to be found in Oxford and Cambridge" [E.C.Zeeman, Mathematical Association President's report, 2004, [http://www.m-a.org.uk/annual_reports/annual_report_200304/] ] Zeeman's style of leadership was informal, but inspirational, and he rapidly took Warwick to international recognition for the quality of its mathematical research. The first six appointments he made were all in topology, enabling the department to immediately become internationally competitive, followed by six in algebra, and finally six in analysis and six in applied mathematics. He was able to trade four academic appointments for funding that enabled PhD students to give undergraduate supervisions in groups of two for the first two years, in a manner similar to the tutorial system at Oxford and Cambridge. He remained at Warwick until 1988, but from 1966 to 1967 he was a visiting professor at the University of California at Berkeley, after which his research turned to dynamical systems, inspired by many of the world leaders in this field, includingStephen Smale andRené Thom , who both spent time at Warwick. Zeeman subsequently spent a sabbatical with Thom at the Institut des Hautes Études Scientifiques in Paris, where he became interested incatastrophe theory . On his return to Warwick, he taught an undergraduate course in Catastrophe Theory which became immensely popular with students; his lectures generally were "standing room only".Zeeman was elected as a
Fellow of the Royal Society in 1975, and was awarded the Society's Faraday Medal in 1988. He was the 63rd President of theLondon Mathematical Society in 1986-88 giving his Presidential Address on 18 November 1988 "On the classification of dynamical systems". He was awarded theSenior Whitehead Prize of the Society in 1982. He was the Society's first Forder lecturer, involving a lecture tour in New Zealand, in 1987.In 1978, Zeeman gave the televised series of Christmas Lectures at the Royal Institution. From these grew the 'Mathematics Master classes' for 13-year old children that now flourish in forty centres in the United Kingdom. [cite web|url=http://www.rigb.org/events/programmeformaths_second.jsp|title=Events programme for maths, Secondary Mathematics Masterclasses|accessdate=2008-01-02]
In 1988, Zeeman became Principal of
Hertford College, Oxford . He received aknighthood in 1991 for "mathematical excellence and service to British mathematics and mathematics education". On Friday6 May 2005 , the University of Warwick's new Mathematics and Statistics building was named the Zeeman building in his honour. In September 2006, it was announced that theLondon Mathematical Society and theInstitute of Mathematics and its Applications will award him the , in recognition of his long and distinguished service to mathematics and the mathematical community. [cite web
url = http://www.lms.ac.uk/newsletter/352/352_03.html
title = Honours and Awards Newsletter
author = London Mathematical Society
accessdate = 2007-07-08] The medal is awarded triennially, and Zeeman will be the second ever recipient of the award.The "Christopher Zeeman Medal for Communication of Mathematics" of the
London Mathematical Society and theInstitute of Mathematics and its Applications is named in Zeeman's honour [cite web|title=The Christopher Zeeman Medal for Communication of Mathematics|url = http://www.ima.org.uk/news/christopher_zeeman_medal.htm|accessdate = 2008-01-02] . The award aims 'to honour mathematicians who have excelled in promoting mathematics and engaging with the general public. They may be academic mathematicians based in universities, mathematics school teachers, industrial mathematicians, those working in the financial sector or indeed mathematicians from any number of other fields'.ee also
*
Stallings-Zeeman theorem References
External links
*MacTutor Biography|id=Zeeman
* [http://at.yorku.ca/i/a/a/h/14.htm Interview in CIM Bulletin]
* [http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/References/Zeeman.html Three references for further reading]
* [http://zakuski.math.utsa.edu/~gokhman/ecz/bib.html Bibliography]
* Zeeman's Catastrophe Machine
** [http://lagrange.physics.drexel.edu/flash/zcm Zeeman's Catastrophe Machine in Flash]
** [http://www.ams.org/featurecolumn/archive/cusp1.html AMS - The Catastrophe Machine]
** [http://www.math.sunysb.edu/~tony/whatsnew/column/catastrophe-0600/cusp4.html Doctor Zeeman's Original Catastrophe Machine]
* "The Cusp of Catastrophe: René Thom, Christopher Zeeman and Denis Postle" in "Maps of the Mind" Charles Hampden-Turner. Collier Books, 1981. ISBN 978-0855332938
*
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