Gordon Thomas Whyburn (January 7, 1904, Lewisville, Texas – September 8, 1969,

Charlottesville, Virginia Charlottesville, colloquially known as C'ville, is an independent city (United States), independent city in Virginia, United States. It is the county seat, seat of government of Albemarle County, Virginia, Albemarle County, which surrounds the ...

) 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 ...

who worked on

topology Topology (from the Greek language, Greek words , and ) is the branch of mathematics concerned with the properties of a Mathematical object, geometric object that are preserved under Continuous function, continuous Deformation theory, deformat ...

. Whyburn studied at the

University of Texas, Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas, United States. Founded in 1883, it is the flagship institution of the University of Texas System. With 53,082 students as of fall 20 ...

, where he earned a bachelor's degree in chemistry in 1925. Under the influence of his teacher Robert Lee Moore, Whyburn continued to study at Austin but changed to mathematics and earned a master's degree in mathematics in 1926 and then a PhD in 1927. After two years as an adjunct professor at U. of Texas, with the aid of 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 ...

Whyburn spent the academic year 1929/1930 in

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

with Hans Hahn and in

Warsaw Warsaw, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the Vistula, River Vistula in east-central Poland. Its population is officially estimated at ...

with

Kuratowski Kazimierz Kuratowski (; 2 February 1896 – 18 June 1980) was a Polish mathematician and logician. He was one of the leading representatives of the Warsaw School of Mathematics. He worked as a professor at the University of Warsaw and at the Math ...

and Sierpinski. After the fellowship expired, Whyburn became a professor at

Johns Hopkins University The Johns Hopkins University (often abbreviated as Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1876 based on the European research institution model, J ...

. From 1934, he was a professor at the

University of Virginia The University of Virginia (UVA) is a Public university#United States, public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia, United States. It was founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson and contains his The Lawn, Academical Village, a World H ...

, where he modernized the mathematics department and spent the rest of his career. He was chair of the department until his first heart attack in 1966; Edward J. McShane joined the department in 1935, and Gustav A. Hedlund was a member of the department from 1939 to 1948. In the academic year 1952/1953 Whyburn was a visiting professor at

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

. In 1953–54, he served as president 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, ...

. Whyburn was awarded the Chauvenet Prize in 1938 for his paper "On the Structure of Continua", and was elected a member of the

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...

in 1951. His doctoral students include John L. Kelley and Alexander Doniphan Wallace. His brother William Marvin Whyburn (1901–1972) was a mathematics professor at

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school then known as the southern branch of the C ...

and became known for his work on ordinary differential equations.

Publications

* * *

References

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Whyburn, Gordon 20th-century American mathematicians Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences Presidents of the American Mathematical Society American topologists University of Texas at Austin College of Natural Sciences alumni University of Virginia faculty 1904 births 1969 deaths Mathematicians from Texas People from Lewisville, Texas Burials at the University of Virginia Cemetery