Morton Landers Curtis was an American mathematician, an expert on group theory

Group theory

In mathematics and abstract algebra, group theory studies the algebraic structures known as groups.The concept of a group is central to abstract algebra: other well-known algebraic structures, such as rings, fields, and vector spaces can all be seen as groups endowed with additional operations and...

 and the W. L. Moody, Jr.

William Lewis Moody, Jr.

William Lewis Moody Jr. was an American financier and entrepreneur from Galveston, Texas, who founded a private bank, an insurance company, and one of the largest charitable foundations in the United States. Moody was active in the day-to-day operations of his companies until two days before his...

 Professor of Mathematics at Rice University

Rice University

William Marsh Rice University, commonly referred to as Rice University or Rice, is a private research university located on a heavily wooded campus in Houston, Texas, United States...

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Curtis earned a bachelor's degree in 1948 from Texas A&I University

Texas A&M University–Kingsville

Texas A&M University–Kingsville is a U.S. national university with a multicultural student body that is 62 percent Hispanic and includes students from 35 states and 43 foreign countries...

, and received his Ph.D. in 1951 from the University of Michigan

University of Michigan

The University of Michigan is a public research university located in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the United States. It is the state's oldest university and the flagship campus of the University of Michigan...

 under the supervision of Raymond Louis Wilder

Raymond Louis Wilder

Raymond Louis Wilder was an American mathematician, who specialized in topology and gradually acquired philosophical and anthropological interests.-Life:...

. Subsequently, he taught mathematics at Florida State University

Florida State University

The Florida State University is a space-grant and sea-grant public university located in Tallahassee, Florida, United States. It is a comprehensive doctoral research university with medical programs and significant research activity as determined by the Carnegie Foundation...

 before moving to Rice. At Rice, he was the Ph.D. advisor of well-known mathematician John Morgan

John Morgan (mathematician)

John Willard Morgan is an American mathematician, well known for his contributions to topology and geometry. He is currently the director of the Simons Center for Geometry and Physics at Stony Brook University.-Life:...

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Curtis is, with James J. Andrews (mathematician)

James J. Andrews (mathematician)

James J. Andrews was an American mathematician, a professor of mathematics at Florida State University who specialized in knot theory, topology, and group theory....

, the namesake of the Andrews–Curtis conjecture

Andrews–Curtis conjecture

In mathematics, the Andrews–Curtis conjecture states that every balanced presentation of the trivial group can be transformed into a trivial presentation by a sequence of Nielsen transformations on the relators together with conjugations of relators, named after James J. Andrews and Morton L....

 concerning Nielsen transformation

Nielsen transformation

In mathematics, especially in the area of abstract algebra known as combinatorial group theory, Nielsen transformations, named after Jakob Nielsen, are certain automorphisms of a free group which are a non-commutative analogue of row reduction and one of the main tools used in studying free groups,...

s of balanced group presentations

Presentation of a group

In mathematics, one method of defining a group is by a presentation. One specifies a set S of generators so that every element of the group can be written as a product of powers of some of these generators, and a set R of relations among those generators...

. Andrews and Curtis formulated the conjecture in a 1965 paper; it remains open. Together with Gustav A. Hedlund

Gustav A. Hedlund

Gustav Arnold Hedlund , an American mathematician, was one of the founders of symbolic and topological dynamics.-Biography:Hedlund was born May 7, 1904, in Somerville, Massachusetts. He did his undergraduate studies at Harvard University, earned a masters degree from Columbia University, and...

 and Roger Lyndon

Roger Lyndon

Roger Conant Lyndon was an American mathematician, for many years a professor at the University of Michigan. He is known for Lyndon words, the Curtis–Hedlund–Lyndon theorem, Craig–Lyndon interpolation and the Lyndon–Hochschild–Serre spectral sequence.-Biography:Lyndon was born on December 18, 1917...

, he proved the Curtis–Hedlund–Lyndon theorem

Curtis–Hedlund–Lyndon theorem

The Curtis–Hedlund–Lyndon theorem is a mathematical characterization of cellular automata in terms of their symbolic dynamics. It is named after Morton L. Curtis, Gustav A...

 characterizing cellular automata as being defined by continuous

Continuous function

In mathematics, a continuous function is a function for which, intuitively, "small" changes in the input result in "small" changes in the output. Otherwise, a function is said to be "discontinuous". A continuous function with a continuous inverse function is called "bicontinuous".Continuity of...

 equivariant

Equivariant

In mathematics, an equivariant map is a function between two sets that commutes with the action of a group. Specifically, let G be a group and let X and Y be two associated G-sets. A function f : X → Y is said to be equivariant iffor all g ∈ G and all x in X...

 functions on a shift space

Shift space

In symbolic dynamics and related branches of mathematics, a shift space or subshift is a set of infinite words representing the evolution of a discrete system. In fact, shift spaces and symbolic dynamical systems are often considered synonyms....

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Curtis was the author of two books, Matrix Groups (Springer-Verlag, 1979), and Abstract Linear Algebra (Springer-Verlag, 1990).