Ronald John Stern (born 20 January 1947) is a mathematician who works 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 ...

geometry Geometry (; ) is a branch of mathematics concerned with properties of space such as the distance, shape, size, and relative position of figures. Geometry is, along with arithmetic, one of the oldest branches of mathematics. A mathematician w ...

, and

gauge theory In physics, a gauge theory is a type of field theory in which the Lagrangian, and hence the dynamics of the system itself, does not change under local transformations according to certain smooth families of operations (Lie groups). Formally, t ...

. He is emeritus professor at the

University of California, Irvine The University of California, Irvine (UCI or UC Irvine) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Irvine, California, United States. One of the ten campuses of the University of California system, U ...

. Stern was the first in his family to receive a college education and earned his bachelor's degree in mathematics from Knox College in

Galesburg, Illinois Galesburg is a city in Knox County, Illinois, United States. The city is northwest of Peoria, Illinois, Peoria. At the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census, its population was 32,195. It is the county seat of Knox County and the principal cit ...

. He then earned his Ph.D. in 1973 from the

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

under the joint supervision of Robert Duncan Edwards ( de) and Robert F. Brown. Before joining the faculty at the University of California, Irvine in 1989, Stern was a professor at the

University of Utah The University of Utah (the U, U of U, or simply Utah) is a public university, public research university in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States. It was established in 1850 as the University of Deseret (Book of Mormon), Deseret by the General A ...

and a visiting professor at UCLA and the

University of Hawaii A university () is an educational institution, institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several Discipline (academia), academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly ...

. He was an Invited Speaker at the 1998

International Congress of Mathematicians The International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM) is the largest conference for the topic of mathematics. It meets once every four years, hosted by the International Mathematical Union (IMU). The Fields Medals, the IMU Abacus Medal (known before ...

, in

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

. He is 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, ...

Selected papers

These are his most cited papers (according to

Google Scholar Google Scholar is a freely accessible web search engine that indexes the full text or metadata of Academic publishing, scholarly literature across an array of publishing formats and disciplines. Released in Beta release, beta in November 2004, th ...

), they are all joint work with Ron Fintushel: *"Knots, links, and 4-manifolds", ''

Inventiones mathematicae ''Inventiones Mathematicae'' is a mathematical journal published monthly by Springer Science+Business Media. It was established in 1966 and is regarded as one of the most prestigious mathematics journals in the world. The current (2023) managing ...

'' 134 (2), pp. 363–400 (1998) *"Rational blowdowns of smooth 4-manifolds", ''

Journal of Differential Geometry The ''Journal of Differential Geometry'' is a peer-reviewed scientific journal of mathematics published by International Press on behalf of Lehigh University in 3 volumes of 3 issues each per year. The journal publishes an annual supplement in book ...

'' 46 (2), pp. 181–235 (1997) *"Instanton homology of Seifert fibred homology three spheres", ''

Proceedings of the London Mathematical Society The London Mathematical Society (LMS) is one of the United Kingdom's learned societies for mathematics (the others being the Royal Statistical Society (RSS), the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications (IMA), the Edinburgh Mathematical S ...

'' 61 (3), pp. 109–137 (1990) *"Immersed spheres in 4-manifolds and the immersed Thom conjecture", ''

Turkish Journal of Mathematics '' Turkish Journal of Mathematics'' is open-access, peer-reviewed academic journal published electronically and bimonthly by the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TÜBITAK). The goal of the journal is to improve the research ...

'' 19 (2), pp. 145–157 (1995) *"Pseudofree orbifolds", ''

Annals of Mathematics The ''Annals of Mathematics'' is a mathematical journal published every two months by Princeton University and the Institute for Advanced Study. History The journal was established as ''The Analyst'' in 1874 and with Joel E. Hendricks as t ...

'', pp. 335–364 (1985) *"Constructing lens spaces by surgery on knots", ''

Mathematische Zeitschrift ''Mathematische Zeitschrift'' ( German for ''Mathematical Journal'') is a mathematical journal for pure and applied mathematics published by Springer Verlag. History The journal was founded in 1917, with its first issue appearing in 1918. It wa ...

'' 175 (1), pp. 33–51 (1980) *"The blowup formula for Donaldson invariants", ''

'' 143 (3), pp. 529–546 (1996)

References

External links

* (publications with online links) {{DEFAULTSORT:Stern, Ronald J. 1947 births Living people University of California, Los Angeles alumni University of California, Irvine faculty American topologists Fellows of the American Mathematical Society University of Utah faculty Knox College (Illinois) alumni Place of birth missing (living people)

Selected papers

See also

References

External links