Charles Cameron Conley (26 September 1933 – 20 November 1984) was an

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, p ...

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 ...

who worked on

dynamical system In mathematics, a dynamical system is a system in which a Function (mathematics), function describes the time dependence of a Point (geometry), point in an ambient space, such as in a parametric curve. Examples include the mathematical models ...

s. The

Conley index theory In dynamical systems theory, Conley index theory, named after Charles Conley, analyzes topological structure of invariant sets of diffeomorphisms and of smooth flows. It is a far-reaching generalization of the Hopf index theorem that predicts ex ...

and the

Conley–Zehnder theorem In mathematics, the Conley–Zehnder theorem, named after Charles C. Conley and Eduard Zehnder, provides a lower bound for the number of fixed points of Hamiltonian diffeomorphisms of standard symplectic tori in terms of the topology of the unde ...

are named after him.

Early life and education

Conley was born in

Royal Oak, Michigan Royal Oak is a city in Oakland County, Michigan, Oakland County in the U.S. state of Michigan. An inner-ring suburb of Metro Detroit, Detroit, Royal Oak is located roughly north of downtown Detroit. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 cens ...

and graduated from

Royal Oak High School Royal Oak High School (ROHS) is a public high school located in Royal Oak, Michigan. The principal is Don Loomis. It is a part of Royal Oak Schools. History Royal Oak High School is a 2006 consolidation of former intra-city rivals Royal O ...

in 1949. Starting in 1949, he attended

Wayne State University Wayne State University (WSU) is a public university, public research university in Detroit, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1868, Wayne State consists of 13 schools and colleges offering approximately 375 programs. It is Michigan's third-l ...

Detroit Detroit ( , ) is the List of municipalities in Michigan, most populous city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is situated on the bank of the Detroit River across from Windsor, Ontario. It had a population of 639,111 at the 2020 United State ...

for one year before he joined the

United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the Air force, air service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is one of the six United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Tracing its ori ...

. After four and a half years in the Air Force, mostly stationed in England, he returned to Wayne State. At Wayne State, he earned a B.S. degree in 1957, where he with the Phi Beta Kappa Key, and an

M.S. A Master of Science (; abbreviated MS, M.S., MSc, M.Sc., SM, S.M., ScM or Sc.M.) is a master's degree. In contrast to the Master of Arts degree, the Master of Science degree is typically granted for studies in sciences, engineering and medicine ...

degree in 1958. He then moved to

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

, where he earned his Ph.D. at the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of moder ...

in 1962 under the supervision of

Jürgen Moser Jürgen Kurt Moser (July 4, 1928 – December 17, 1999) was a German-American mathematician, honored for work spanning over four decades, including Hamiltonian dynamical systems and partial differential equations. Life Moser's mother Ilse Strehl ...

Career

After a postdoc at

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...

Courant Institute The Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences (commonly known as Courant or CIMS) is the mathematics research school of New York University (NYU). Founded in 1935, it is named after Richard Courant, one of the founders of the Courant Institute ...

, he took up in 1963 an assistant professor 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 ...

, where he was promoted to full professor in 1968.

Works

*''Isolated invariant sets and the Morse index''. CBMS Regional Conference Series in Mathematics, 38. American Mathematical Society, Providence, Rhode Island, 1978.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Conley, Charles C. 1934 births 1984 deaths 20th-century American mathematicians Massachusetts Institute of Technology School of Science alumni University of Wisconsin–Madison faculty People from Royal Oak, Michigan Mathematicians from Michigan United States Air Force airmen