Franklin Paul Peterson (1930–2000) was an American

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 ...

specializing in

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 was a professor of mathematics 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 ...

...

Life and career

Peterson was born in

Aurora, Illinois Aurora is a city in northeastern Illinois, United States. It is located along the Fox River (Illinois River tributary), Fox River west of Chicago. It is the List of municipalities in Illinois, second-most populous city in Illinois, with a popul ...

, on August 27, 1930, the older of two brothers. His father died when he was young, and he was raised by his mother and uncle. He attended

Northwestern University Northwestern University (NU) is a Private university, private research university in Evanston, Illinois, United States. Established in 1851 to serve the historic Northwest Territory, it is the oldest University charter, chartered university in ...

, graduating in 1952, and earned his

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 ...

in 1955 from

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...

under the supervision of

Norman Steenrod Norman Earl Steenrod (April 22, 1910October 14, 1971) was an American mathematician most widely known for his contributions to the field of algebraic topology. Life He was born in Dayton, Ohio, and educated at Miami University and University of ...

. After postdoctoral studies at Princeton, he joined the MIT faculty in 1958. Peterson edited the ''

Transactions of the American Mathematical Society The ''Transactions of the American Mathematical Society'' is a monthly peer-reviewed scientific journal of pure and applied mathematics published by the American Mathematical Society. It was established in 1900. As a requirement, all articles must ...

'' from 1966 to 1970. He also served for many years as treasurer of the AMS; in that role he played a key role in resolving tensions between the dual directors of the society as it was then structured, and worked to build up a large reserve fund for the society. Peterson married Marilyn Rutz in 1959. He died of a stroke on September 1, 2000, near

Washington, DC Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and Federal district of the United States, federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from ...

Contributions

Peterson's early research used

cohomology In mathematics, specifically in homology theory and algebraic topology, cohomology is a general term for a sequence of abelian groups, usually one associated with a topological space, often defined from a cochain complex. Cohomology can be viewed ...

to study

homotopy equivalence In topology, two continuous functions from one topological space to another are called homotopic (from and ) if one can be "continuously deformed" into the other, such a deformation being called a homotopy ( ; ) between the two functions. A ...

. Later, he did important work on the properties of

loop space In topology, a branch of mathematics, the loop space Ω''X'' of a pointed topological space ''X'' is the space of (based) loops in ''X'', i.e. continuous pointed maps from the pointed circle ''S''1 to ''X'', equipped with the compact-open topolog ...

s. The

Peterson–Stein formula In mathematics, the Peterson–Stein formula, introduced by , describes the Spanier–Whitehead dual of a secondary cohomology operation. References * Theorems in algebraic topology {{topology-stub ...

is named after him, after he wrote about it with Norman Stein in 1960. He also introduced the

Brown–Peterson cohomology In mathematics, Brown–Peterson cohomology is a generalized cohomology theory introduced by , depending on a choice of prime ''p''. It is described in detail by . Its representing spectrum is denoted by BP. Complex cobordism and Quillen's idempot ...

with

Edgar H. Brown Edgar Henry Brown, Jr. (December 27, 1926 – December 22, 2021) was an American mathematician specializing in algebraic topology, and for many years a professor at Brandeis University. Life Brown was born in Oak Park, Illinois. He completed ...

in 1966.. He advised over 20 doctoral students (different sources give different numbers, in part because Robert E. Mosher, whom Peterson considered his first student, had a different official advisor) and has over 100 academic descendants.

Selected publications

*. * *. *. *. Part II (with Frederick R. Cohen), pp. 41–51.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Peterson, Franklin P. 1930 births 2000 deaths 20th-century American mathematicians Northwestern University alumni Princeton University alumni Massachusetts Institute of Technology School of Science faculty American topologists Mathematicians from Illinois People from Aurora, Illinois