John Roe (6 October 1959 – 9 March 2018) was a British mathematician. Roe grew up in the countryside in

Shropshire Shropshire (; alternatively Salop; abbreviated in print only as Shrops; demonym Salopian ) is a landlocked historic county in the West Midlands region of England. It is bordered by Wales to the west and the English counties of Cheshire to ...

. He went to

Rugby School Rugby School is a public school (English independent boarding school for pupils aged 13–18) in Rugby, Warwickshire, England. Founded in 1567 as a free grammar school for local boys, it is one of the oldest independent schools in Britain. ...

, was an undergraduate at

Cambridge University , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

, and received his D.Phil. in 1985 from the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a 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 world's second-oldest university in contin ...

under the supervision of

Michael Atiyah Sir Michael Francis Atiyah (; 22 April 1929 – 11 January 2019) was a British-Lebanese mathematician specialising in geometry. His contributions include the Atiyah–Singer index theorem and co-founding topological K-theory. He was awarded t ...

. As a post-doctoral student, he was at the

Mathematical Sciences Research Institute The Simons Laufer Mathematical Sciences Institute (SLMath), formerly the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute (MSRI), is an independent nonprofit mathematical research institution on the University of California campus in Berkeley, Califo ...

(MSRI) in Berkeley, and then a tutor at

Jesus College, Oxford Jesus College (in full: Jesus College in the University of Oxford of Queen Elizabeth's Foundation) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. It is in the centre of the city, on a site between Turl Street, Ship S ...

. From 1998 until shortly before his death he was a professor at the

Pennsylvania State University The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State or PSU) is a public state-related land-grant research university with campuses and facilities throughout Pennsylvania. Founded in 1855 as the Farmers' High School of Pennsylvania, Penn State becam ...

. His research interests center around index theorems,

coarse geometry In the mathematical fields of geometry and topology, a coarse structure on a set ''X'' is a collection of subsets of the cartesian product ''X'' × ''X'' with certain properties which allow the ''large-scale structure'' of metric spaces and to ...

operator algebras In functional analysis, a branch of mathematics, an operator algebra is an algebra of continuous linear operators on a topological vector space, with the multiplication given by the composition of mappings. The results obtained in the study ...

noncommutative geometry Noncommutative geometry (NCG) is a branch of mathematics concerned with a geometric approach to noncommutative algebras, and with the construction of ''spaces'' that are locally presented by noncommutative algebras of functions (possibly in some g ...

, and the

Novikov conjecture The Novikov conjecture is one of the most important unsolved problems in topology. It is named for Sergei Novikov who originally posed the conjecture in 1965. The Novikov conjecture concerns the homotopy invariance of certain polynomials in the ...

differential topology In mathematics, differential topology is the field dealing with the topological properties and smooth properties of smooth manifolds. In this sense differential topology is distinct from the closely related field of differential geometry, which ...

. He was an editor of the ''

Journal of Noncommutative Geometry A journal, from the Old French ''journal'' (meaning "daily"), may refer to: *Bullet journal, a method of personal organization *Diary, a record of what happened over the course of a day or other period *Daybook, also known as a general journal, a ...

'' and the ''

Journal of Topology The ''Journal of Topology'' is a peer-reviewed scientific journal which publishes papers of high quality and significance in topology, geometry, and adjacent areas of mathematics. It was established in 2008, when the Editorial Board of ''Topology'' ...

''. In 1996 he was awarded the

Whitehead Prize The Whitehead Prize is awarded yearly by the London Mathematical Society to multiple mathematicians working in the United Kingdom who are at an early stage of their career. The prize is named in memory of homotopy theory pioneer J. H. C. Whitehea ...

. In 2012 he became a fellow 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 ...

.List of Fellows of the American Mathematical Society
retrieved 2013-08-27.

Books

*''Elementary Geometry'' *''Lectures on Coarse Geometry''
''Winding Around'', American Math Society, (2015)
*''Analytic K-Homology with Nigel Higson''
''Mathematics for Sustainability'', Springer, (2018)

References

External links

Home page
{{UK-mathematician-stub 1959 births 2018 deaths 20th-century British mathematicians 21st-century British mathematicians Scientists from Shropshire Alumni of the University of Cambridge Alumni of the University of Oxford Pennsylvania State University faculty Academic journal editors Fellows of the American Mathematical Society British geometers Topologists