George Mostow
George Daniel Mostow (July 4, 1923 – April 4, 2017)
was an American mathematician, renowned for his George Mostow
contributions to Lie theory. He was the Henry Ford II
(emeritus) Professor of Mathematics at Yale
University, a member of the National Academy of
Sciences, the 49th president of the American
Mathematical Society (1987–1988), and a trustee of
the Institute for Advanced Study from 1982 to 1992.[1]
The rigidity phenomenon for lattices in Lie groups he
discovered and explored is known as Mostow rigidity.
His work on rigidity played an essential role in the
work of three Fields medalists, namely Grigori
Margulis, William Thurston, and Grigori Perelman.[2]
Biography Born July 4, 1923
Mostow was born in Boston, Massachusetts. His Died April 4, 2017 (aged 93)
parents were Jews from Ukraine who immigrated to Nationality American
the United States in the early 20th century.[3] Mostow Alma mater Harvard University
attended the Boston Latin School and Hebrew
Known for Mostow's rigidity theorem
College[4] before going to Harvard University, where
Mostow–Palais theorem
he received his bachelor's degree in mathematics in
1943 and followed by his Ph.D. in mathematics in Awards Wolf Prize (2013)
1948. His Ph.D. thesis was written under the Leroy P. Steele Prize (1993)
supervision of Garrett Birkhoff.[5] His academic Scientific career
appointments had been at Syracuse University from Institutions Syracuse University
1949 to 1952, at Johns Hopkins University from 1952 Johns Hopkins University
to 1961, and at Yale University from 1961 until his Yale University
retirement in 1999.[6] He died on April 4, 2017.[7] Thesis The Extensibility of Local Lie
Groups of Transformations and
Groups on Surfaces ([Link]
Honors [Link]/stable/196943
7) (1948)
Mostow was elected to the National Academy of
Doctoral Garrett Birkhoff
Sciences in 1974, served as the President of the
advisor
American Mathematical Society in 1987 and 1988, and
was a Trustee of the Institute for Advanced Study in
Princeton, New Jersey from 1982 to 1992. He was awarded the AMS Leroy P. Steele Prize for Seminal
Contribution to Research in 1993 for his book Strong rigidity of locally symmetric spaces (1973).[8] In
1993 he was awarded the American Mathematical Society's Leroy P. Steele Prize for Seminal
Contribution to Research. In 2013, he was awarded the Wolf Prize in Mathematics "for his fundamental
and pioneering contribution to geometry and Lie group theory."[2]
See also
Strong rigidity
Superrigidity
Hochschild–Mostow group
References
1. "In Memoriam: George Daniel Mostow 1923-2017" ([Link]
14859/[Link] Yale University.
Archived from the original ([Link]
7) on 1 January 2018. Retrieved 22 April 2017.
2. "Prof. George Mostow Winner of Wolf Prize in Mathematics - 2013" ([Link]
[Link]/[Link]?dir=site&page=winners&cs=733). The Wolf Foundation.
3. "Enlightenment at a red traffic light: Wolf Prize laureate Prof. George Daniel Mostow made
his greatest scientific breakthrough while driving" ([Link]
[Link]-1.523627). Haaretz. May 12, 2013.
4. "GEORGE MOSTOW Obituary (1923 - 2017) - Hamden, CT - New Haven Register" (https://
[Link]/us/obituaries/nhregister/name/george-mostow-obituary?id=14284276).
[Link].
5. George Mostow ([Link] at the Mathematics
Genealogy Project
6. O'Connor, John J.; Robertson, Edmund F., "George Daniel Mostow" ([Link]
[Link]/Biographies/[Link]), MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive,
University of St Andrews
7. "In Memoriam: George Daniel Mostow 1923-2017" ([Link]
14859/[Link] Yale University.
Archived from the original ([Link]
7) on 1 January 2018. Retrieved 18 January 2017.
8. Helgason, Sigurdur (1975). "Review: Strong rigidity of locally symmetric spaces, by G. D.
Mostow" ([Link] Bulletin of the American
Mathematical Society. 81 (3, Part 1): 509–514. doi:10.1090/s0002-9904-1975-13726-8 (http
s://[Link]/10.1090%2Fs0002-9904-1975-13726-8).
Science 20 October 1978: Vol. 202. no. 4365, pp. 297–298.
Pierre Deligne and Daniel Mostow, Commensurabilities among lattices in PU(1,n). Annals of
Mathematics Studies, 132. Princeton University Press, 1993 ISBN 0-691-00096-4
Roger Howe, editor, Discrete groups in geometry and analysis. Papers in Honor of G. D.
Mostow on His Sixtieth Birthday (Conference held at Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA,
March 23–25, 1986), Progress in Mathematics, Vol. 67. Birkhäuser, Boston–Basel–Stuttgart
ISBN 0-8176-3301-4
George Mostow, Strong rigidity of locally symmetric spaces, Annals of Mathematics Studies,
no. 78, Princeton University Press, Princeton, 1973
Alexander Lubotzky, Tannaka duality for discrete groups. American Journal of Mathematics
Vol. 102, pp. 663 – 689, 1980
External links
AMS Presidents: A Timeline ([Link] at the American
Mathematical Society website.
Retrieved from "[Link]
