Charles Whittlesey Curtis (born October 13, 1926) is a

mathematician A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, mathematical structure, structure, space, Mathematica ...

and

historian of mathematics The history of mathematics deals with the origin of discoveries in mathematics and the History of mathematical notation, mathematical methods and notation of the past. Before the modern age and the worldwide spread of knowledge, written examples ...

, known for his work in

finite group theory In abstract algebra, a finite group is a group whose underlying set is finite. Finite groups often arise when considering symmetry of mathematical or physical objects, when those objects admit just a finite number of structure-preserving tra ...

and

representation theory Representation theory is a branch of mathematics that studies abstract algebra, abstract algebraic structures by ''representing'' their element (set theory), elements as linear transformations of vector spaces, and studies Module (mathematics), ...

. He is a retired professor of mathematics at the

University of Oregon The University of Oregon (UO, U of O or Oregon) is a Public university, public research university in Eugene, Oregon, United States. Founded in 1876, the university is organized into nine colleges and schools and offers 420 undergraduate and gra ...

Research

Curtis introduced Curtis duality, a duality operation on the characters of a

reductive group In mathematics, a reductive group is a type of linear algebraic group over a field. One definition is that a connected linear algebraic group ''G'' over a perfect field is reductive if it has a representation that has a finite kernel and is a ...

over a

finite field In mathematics, a finite field or Galois field (so-named in honor of Évariste Galois) is a field (mathematics), field that contains a finite number of Element (mathematics), elements. As with any field, a finite field is a Set (mathematics), s ...

. His book with Irving Reiner was the standard text on representation theory for many years.

Biography

Curtis received a bachelor's degree from

Bowdoin College Bowdoin College ( ) is a Private college, private liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Brunswick, Maine. It was chartered in 1794. The main Bowdoin campus is located near Casco Bay and the Androscoggin River. In a ...

in 1948, and his Ph.D. from

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...

in 1951, under the supervision of

Nathan Jacobson Nathan Jacobson (October 5, 1910 – December 5, 1999) was an American mathematician. Biography Born Nachman Arbiser in Warsaw, Jacobson emigrated to America with his family in 1918. He graduated from the University of Alabama in 1930 and was awa ...

. He taught at the

University of Wisconsin–Madison The University of Wisconsin–Madison (University of Wisconsin, Wisconsin, UW, UW–Madison, or simply Madison) is a public land-grant research university in Madison, Wisconsin, United States. It was founded in 1848 when Wisconsin achieved st ...

from 1954 to 1963. Subsequently, he moved to the

, where he is an

emeritus professor ''Emeritus/Emerita'' () is an honorary title granted to someone who retires from a position of distinction, most commonly an academic faculty position, but is allowed to continue using the previous title, as in "professor emeritus". In some c ...

. While at Yale, on June 17, 1950 in

Cheshire, Connecticut Cheshire ( ), is a town in New Haven County, Connecticut, United States. At the time of the 2020 census, the population of Cheshire was 28,733. The town is part of the Naugatuck Valley Planning Region. The center of population of Connecticut i ...

, Curtis married his wife Elizabeth, a

kindergarten Kindergarten is a preschool educational approach based on playing, singing, practical activities such as drawing, and social interaction as part of the transition from home to school. Such institutions were originally made in the late 18th cen ...

teacher and childcare provider. At the time of their 50th anniversary in 2000, they had three grandchildren. In 2012 he became a fellow of the

American Mathematical Society The American Mathematical Society (AMS) is an association of professional mathematicians dedicated to the interests of mathematical research and scholarship, and serves the national and international community through its publications, meetings, ...

Publications

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References

External links

Pictures of C. W. Curtis
from Oberwolfach {{DEFAULTSORT:Curtis, Charles W. 20th-century American mathematicians Group theorists American historians of mathematics Institute for Advanced Study visiting scholars Bowdoin College alumni Yale University alumni University of Oregon faculty University of Wisconsin–Madison faculty Fellows of the American Mathematical Society 1926 births Living people 21st-century American mathematicians