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Sherman Kopald Stein (born August 11, 1926) is an American mathematician and an author of mathematics textbooks. He is a
professor emeritus ''Emeritus'' (; female: ''emerita'') is an adjective used to designate a retired chair, professor, pastor, bishop, pope, director, president, prime minister, rabbi, emperor, or other person who has been "permitted to retain as an honorary title ...
at the
University of California, Davis The University of California, Davis (UC Davis, UCD, or Davis) is a public land-grant research university near Davis, California. Named a Public Ivy, it is the northernmost of the ten campuses of the University of California system. The institu ...
. His writings have won the
Lester R. Ford Award Lester is an ancient Anglo-Saxon surname and given name. Notable people and characters with the name include: People Given name * Lester Bangs (1948–1982), American music critic * Lester W. Bentley (1908–1972), American artist from Wisco ...
and the Beckenbach Book Prize.


Life

Stein was born on August 11, 1926, in
Minneapolis Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with list of lakes in Minneapolis, thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. ...
; his father was a bookbinder. He graduated from the
California Institute of Technology The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech or CIT)The university itself only spells its short form as "Caltech"; the institution considers other spellings such a"Cal Tech" and "CalTech" incorrect. The institute is also occasional ...
in 1946. He completed his doctorate at Columbia University in 1952. His dissertation, ''The Homology of the Two-Fold Symmetric Product'', was supervised by
Paul Althaus Smith Paul Althaus Smith (May 18, 1900June 13, 1980) was an American mathematician. His name occurs in two significant conjectures in geometric topology: the Smith conjecture, which is now a theorem, and the Hilbert–Smith conjecture, which was proved ...
. Stein worked as a mathematics instructor at
Princeton University Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the nin ...
for a year, and then joined the mathematics faculty at the
University of California, Davis The University of California, Davis (UC Davis, UCD, or Davis) is a public land-grant research university near Davis, California. Named a Public Ivy, it is the northernmost of the ten campuses of the University of California system. The institu ...
in 1953. He retired in 1993.


Books

Stein is the author of: *''Mathematics: The Man-Made Universe: An Introduction to the Spirit of Mathematics'' (W. H. Freeman, 1963; 3rd ed., Dover, 1998) *''Calculus in the First Three Dimensions'' (McGraw-Hill, 1967) *''Calculus for the Natural and Social Sciences'' (McGraw-Hill, 1968) *''Calculus and Analytic Geometry'' (McGraw-Hill, 1968; 5th ed., 1992) *''Elementary Algebra: A Guided Inquiry'' (with Calvin D. Crabill, Houghton Mifflin, 1972) *''Geometry: A Guided Inquiry'' (with G. D. Chakerian and Calvin D. Crabill, Houghton Mifflin, 1972) *''Algebra II/Trigonometry'' (with Calvin D. Crabill, W. H. Freeman, 1976) *''An Introduction to Differential Equations'' (with Anthony Barcellos, McGraw-Hill, 1994) *'' Algebra and Tiling: Homomorphisms in the Service of Geometry'' (with Sándor Szabó, Mathematical Association of America, 1994) *''Strength in Numbers: Discovering the Joy and Power of Mathematics in Everyday Life'' (Wiley, 1996) *''Archimedes: What Did He Do besides Cry Eureka?'' (Mathematical Association of America, 1999) *''How the Other Half Thinks: Adventures in Mathematical Reasoning'' (McGraw-Hill, 2001; reprinted as ''Adventures in Mathematical Reasoning'', Dover, 2016) *''Survival Guide for Outsiders: How to Protect Yourself from Politicians, Experts and Other Insiders'' (BookSurge, 2010). The book ''Algebra and Tiling: Homomorphisms in the Service of Geometry'', written by Stein and Szabó, won the 1998 Beckenbach Book Prize of the
Mathematical Association of America The Mathematical Association of America (MAA) is a professional society that focuses on mathematics accessible at the undergraduate level. Members include university, college, and high school teachers; graduate and undergraduate students; pure ...
.


Other contributions

Stein's doctoral research was in
topology In mathematics, topology (from the Greek words , and ) is concerned with the properties of a geometric object that are preserved under continuous deformations, such as stretching, twisting, crumpling, and bending; that is, without closing h ...
, but his research interests later shifted to
abstract algebra In mathematics, more specifically algebra, abstract algebra or modern algebra is the study of algebraic structures. Algebraic structures include groups, rings, fields, modules, vector spaces, lattices, and algebras over a field. The term ' ...
and combinatorics. In combinatorics, he is known for formulating the tripod packing problem. The tripods of this problem are infinite
polycube upAll 8 one-sided tetracubes – if chirality is ignored, the bottom 2 in grey are considered the same, giving 7 free tetracubes in total A puzzle involving arranging nine L tricubes into a 3×3 cube A polycube is a solid figure formed by j ...
s, the unions of the lattice cubes along three axis-parallel rays, and they have also been called "Stein corners" in honor of his contributions to this problem. Stein is also known as one of the independent discoverers of
Fáry's theorem In the mathematical field of graph theory, Fáry's theorem states that any simple, planar graph can be drawn without crossings so that its edges are straight line segments. That is, the ability to draw graph edges as curves instead of as straig ...
, and for his contributions to equidissection, the partition of polygons into triangles of equal area. Stein won the
Lester R. Ford Award Lester is an ancient Anglo-Saxon surname and given name. Notable people and characters with the name include: People Given name * Lester Bangs (1948–1982), American music critic * Lester W. Bentley (1908–1972), American artist from Wisco ...
of the
Mathematical Association of America The Mathematical Association of America (MAA) is a professional society that focuses on mathematics accessible at the undergraduate level. Members include university, college, and high school teachers; graduate and undergraduate students; pure ...
in 1975 for a paper on the connections between
group theory In abstract algebra, group theory studies the algebraic structures known as groups. The concept of a group is central to abstract algebra: other well-known algebraic structures, such as rings, fields, and vector spaces, can all be seen as ...
and
tessellations A tessellation or tiling is the covering of a surface, often a plane, using one or more geometric shapes, called ''tiles'', with no overlaps and no gaps. In mathematics, tessellation can be generalized to higher dimensions and a variety of g ...
.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stein, Sherman K. Living people 20th-century American mathematicians California Institute of Technology alumni Columbia University alumni Princeton University faculty University of California, Davis faculty 1926 births