Sherman Kopald Stein (born August 11, 1926) is an American mathematician and an author of mathematics textbooks. He is a

professor emeritus ''Emeritus/Emerita'' () is an honorary title granted to someone who retirement, retires from a position of distinction, most commonly an academic faculty position, but is allowed to continue using the previous title, as in "professor emeritus". ...

at the

University of California, Davis The University of California, Davis (UC Davis, UCD, or Davis) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Davis, California, United States. It is the northernmost of the ten campuses of the University ...

. His writings have won the

Lester R. Ford Award ''The American Mathematical Monthly'' is a peer-reviewed scientific journal of mathematics. It was established by Benjamin Finkel in 1894 and is published by Taylor & Francis on behalf of the Mathematical Association of America. It is an expositor ...

and the Beckenbach Book Prize.

Life

Stein was born on August 11, 1926, in

Minneapolis Minneapolis is a city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States, and its county seat. With a population of 429,954 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the state's List of cities in Minnesota, most populous city. Locat ...

; his father was a bookbinder. He graduated from the

California Institute of Technology The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech) is a private research university in Pasadena, California, United States. The university is responsible for many modern scientific advancements and is among a small group of institutes ...

in 1946. He completed his doctorate 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 ...

in 1952. His dissertation, ''The Homology of the Two-Fold Symmetric Product'', was supervised by Paul Althaus Smith. Stein worked as a mathematics instructor at

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 ...

for a year, and then joined the mathematics faculty at the

in 1953. He retired in 1993.

Books

Stein is the author of: *''Mathematics: The Man-Made Universe: An Introduction to the Spirit of Mathematics'' (W. H. Freeman, 1963; 3rd ed., Dover, 1998) *''Calculus in the First Three Dimensions'' (McGraw-Hill, 1967) *''Calculus for the Natural and Social Sciences'' (McGraw-Hill, 1968) *''Calculus and Analytic Geometry'' (McGraw-Hill, 1968; 5th ed., 1992) *''Elementary Algebra: A Guided Inquiry'' (with Calvin D. Crabill, Houghton Mifflin, 1972) *''Geometry: A Guided Inquiry'' (with G. D. Chakerian and Calvin D. Crabill, Houghton Mifflin, 1972) *''Algebra II/Trigonometry'' (with Calvin D. Crabill, W. H. Freeman, 1976) *''An Introduction to Differential Equations'' (with Anthony Barcellos, McGraw-Hill, 1994) *'' Algebra and Tiling: Homomorphisms in the Service of Geometry'' (with Sándor Szabó, Mathematical Association of America, 1994) *''Strength in Numbers: Discovering the Joy and Power of Mathematics in Everyday Life'' (Wiley, 1996) *''Archimedes: What Did He Do besides Cry Eureka?'' (Mathematical Association of America, 1999) *''How the Other Half Thinks: Adventures in Mathematical Reasoning'' (McGraw-Hill, 2001; reprinted as ''Adventures in Mathematical Reasoning'', Dover, 2016) *''Survival Guide for Outsiders: How to Protect Yourself from Politicians, Experts and Other Insiders'' (BookSurge, 2010). The book ''Algebra and Tiling: Homomorphisms in the Service of Geometry'', written by Stein and Szabó, won the 1998 Beckenbach Book Prize of the

Mathematical Association of America The Mathematical Association of America (MAA) is a professional society that focuses on mathematics accessible at the undergraduate level. Members include university A university () is an educational institution, institution of tertiary edu ...

Other contributions

Stein's doctoral research was in

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 ...

, but his research interests later shifted to

abstract algebra In mathematics, more specifically algebra, abstract algebra or modern algebra is the study of algebraic structures, which are set (mathematics), sets with specific operation (mathematics), operations acting on their elements. Algebraic structur ...

and

combinatorics Combinatorics is an area of mathematics primarily concerned with counting, both as a means and as an end to obtaining results, and certain properties of finite structures. It is closely related to many other areas of mathematics and has many ...

. In combinatorics, he is known for formulating the tripod packing problem. The tripods of this problem are infinite

polycube image:tetracube_categories.svg, upAll 8 one-sided tetracubes – if chirality is ignored, the bottom 2 in grey are considered the same, giving 7 free tetracubes in total image:9L cube puzzle solution.svg, A puzzle involving arranging nine L tricube ...

s, the unions of the lattice cubes along three axis-parallel rays, and they have also been called "Stein corners" in honor of his contributions to this problem. Stein is also known as one of the independent discoverers of

Fáry's theorem In the mathematical field of graph theory, Fáry's theorem states that any simple graph, simple, planar graph can be Graph drawing, drawn without crossings so that its edges are straight line segments. That is, the ability to draw graph edges as ...

, and for his contributions to equidissection, the partition of polygons into triangles of equal area. Stein won the

of the

in 1975 for a paper on the connections between

group theory In abstract algebra, group theory studies the algebraic structures known as group (mathematics), groups. The concept of a group is central to abstract algebra: other well-known algebraic structures, such as ring (mathematics), rings, field ( ...

and

tessellations A tessellation or tiling is the covering of a surface, often a plane (mathematics), plane, using one or more geometric shapes, called ''tiles'', with no overlaps and no gaps. In mathematics, tessellation can be generalized to high-dimensiona ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stein, Sherman K. Living people 20th-century American mathematicians California Institute of Technology alumni Columbia University alumni Princeton University faculty University of California, Davis faculty 1926 births