Edward Baldwin Curtis (March 13, 1933 – April 2, 2024) was an American mathematician.

Life and career

Curtis was born in

Newburyport, Massachusetts Newburyport is a coastal city in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States, northeast of Boston. The population was 18,289 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. A historic seaport with a vibrant tourism industry, Newburyport includes p ...

on March 13, 1933. He received his bachelor's degree from

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

in 1954. After graduate study from 1958 to 1959 at the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

, he returned to Harvard and earned a

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

there in 1962. His thesis ''The Lower Central Series for Free Group Complexes'' was supervised by

Raoul Bott Raoul Bott (September 24, 1923 – December 20, 2005) was a Hungarian-American mathematician known for numerous foundational contributions to geometry in its broad sense. He is best known for his Bott periodicity theorem, the Morse–Bott function ...

. Curtis became an instructor 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 ...

(1962–1964), assistant professor (1964–1967), and associate professor (1967–1970). In 1970 he became a professor at the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW and informally U-Dub or U Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington, United States. Founded in 1861, the University of Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast of the Uni ...

Seattle Seattle ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the 18th-most populous city in the United States. The city is the cou ...

, where he remained until his retirement as professor emeritus. His research interests included

graph theory In mathematics and computer science, graph theory is the study of ''graph (discrete mathematics), graphs'', which are mathematical structures used to model pairwise relations between objects. A graph in this context is made up of ''Vertex (graph ...

and

flow network In graph theory, a flow network (also known as a transportation network) is a directed graph where each edge has a capacity and each edge receives a flow. The amount of flow on an edge cannot exceed the capacity of the edge. Often in operations re ...

s. In 1967 for his studies on

algebraic topology Algebraic topology is a branch of mathematics that uses tools from abstract algebra to study topological spaces. The basic goal is to find algebraic invariant (mathematics), invariants that classification theorem, classify topological spaces up t ...

he received a

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are Grant (money), grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, endowed by the late Simon Guggenheim, Simon and Olga Hirsh Guggenheim. These awards are bestowed upon indiv ...

and in 1972 the

Leroy P. Steele Prize The Leroy P. Steele Prizes are awarded every year by the American Mathematical Society, for distinguished research work and writing in the field of mathematics. Since 1993, there has been a formal division into three categories. The prizes have b ...

for his paper ''Simplicial homotopy theory''. Curtis died in

Seattle, Washington Seattle ( ) is the List of municipalities in Washington, most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington (state), Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the List of Unit ...

on April 2, 2024, at the age of 91.

Works

* * * with James A. Morrow:

Sources

* Mary Ellis Woodring and Susan Park Norton (eds.): ''Reports of the President and the Treasurer f the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation1967 and 1968.'' New York 1967, , p. 27
excerpt

References

External links

*
Edward B. Curtis
at the math faculty website of the University of Washington (with photograph)
Website of Edward B. Curtis at the U. of Washington

Photograph of Edward Baldwin Curtis
in MIT Museum

{{DEFAULTSORT:Curtis, Edward Baldwin 1933 births 2024 deaths 20th-century American mathematicians 21st-century American mathematicians Harvard University alumni Massachusetts Institute of Technology School of Science faculty University of Washington faculty People from Newburyport, Massachusetts Alumni of the University of Oxford Mathematicians from Massachusetts