Marvin Jay Greenberg (December 22, 1935 – December 12, 2017) was an American mathematician.

Education

Greenberg studied at

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

where he received his bachelor's degree in 1955 (he was a Ford Scholar as an undergraduate) and received his doctorate 1959 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

Serge Lang Serge Lang (; May 19, 1927 – September 12, 2005) was a French-American mathematician and activist who taught at Yale University for most of his career. He is known for his work in number theory and for his mathematics textbooks, including the i ...

with the thesis ''Pro-Algebraic Structure on the Rational Subgroup of a P-Adic Abelian Variety''.

Career

From 1955 Greenberg was an assistant at Princeton, from 1958 an assistant at the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...

and in 1958 and 1959, an instructor at

Rutgers University Rutgers University ( ), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a Public university, public land-grant research university consisting of three campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's C ...

. From 1959 to 1964 he was an assistant professor at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

, two years of which time he spent on

National Science Foundation The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) is an Independent agencies of the United States government#Examples of independent agencies, independent agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government that su ...

postdoctoral fellowships at

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 ...

and the

Institut des Hautes Études Scientifiques The Institut des hautes études scientifiques (IHÉS; English: Institute of Advanced Scientific Studies) is a French research institute supporting advanced research in mathematics and theoretical physics (also with a small theoretical biology g ...

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

. From 1965 to 1967 he was an associate professor at

Northeastern University Northeastern University (NU or NEU) is a private university, private research university with its main campus in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It was founded by the Boston Young Men's Christian Association in 1898 as an all-male instit ...

and from 1967 he worked as an associate professor, and later full professor, at the

University of California, Santa Cruz The University of California, Santa Cruz (UC Santa Cruz or UCSC) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Santa Cruz, California, United States. It is one of the ten campuses in the University of C ...

. He retired early in 1992 and moved back to Berkeley. He was known for his book on

non-Euclidean geometry In mathematics, non-Euclidean geometry consists of two geometries based on axioms closely related to those that specify Euclidean geometry. As Euclidean geometry lies at the intersection of metric geometry and affine geometry, non-Euclidean ge ...

(1st edition, 1974; 4th edition, 2008) and his book 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 ...

(1st edition, 1967, published with the title ''Lectures on Algebraic Topology''; revised edition published, with John R. Harper as co-author, in 1981 with the title ''Algebraic Topology: A First Course''). Greenberg was also a passionate golfer and a founding member of the Shivas Irons Society.

References

External links

Marvin Greenberg's faculty page at the University of California, Santa Cruz
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Greenberg, Marvin 1935 births 2017 deaths Mathematicians from New York (state) Princeton University alumni University of California, Santa Cruz faculty Columbia University alumni Northeastern University faculty Mathematicians from New York City American topologists University of Chicago faculty Rutgers University faculty University of California, Berkeley College of Letters and Science faculty 20th-century American mathematicians French–English translators 21st-century American mathematicians 20th-century American translators