Robert MacPherson
Encyclopedia
Robert Duncan MacPherson (born May 25, 1944) is an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 mathematician at the Institute for Advanced Study
Institute for Advanced Study
The Institute for Advanced Study, located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States, is an independent postgraduate center for theoretical research and intellectual inquiry. It was founded in 1930 by Abraham Flexner...

 and Princeton University
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....

. He is best known for the invention of intersection homology with Mark Goresky
Mark Goresky
Robert Mark Goresky is a Canadian mathematician who invented intersection homology with Robert MacPherson.He received his Ph.D. from Brown University in 1976. His thesis, titled Geometric Cohomology and Homology of Stratified Objects, was written under the direction of MacPherson...

, whose thesis he directed at Brown University. MacPherson previously taught at Brown University
Brown University
Brown University is a private, Ivy League university located in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. Founded in 1764 prior to American independence from the British Empire as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations early in the reign of King George III ,...

, the University of Paris
University of Paris
The University of Paris was a university located in Paris, France and one of the earliest to be established in Europe. It was founded in the mid 12th century, and officially recognized as a university probably between 1160 and 1250...

, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...

. In 1983 he gave a plenary address at the International Congress of Mathematicians
International Congress of Mathematicians
The International Congress of Mathematicians is the largest conference for the topic of mathematics. It meets once every four years, hosted by the International Mathematical Union ....

 in Warsaw.

Educated at Swarthmore College
Swarthmore College
Swarthmore College is a private, independent, liberal arts college in the United States with an enrollment of about 1,500 students. The college is located in the borough of Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, 11 miles southwest of Philadelphia....

 and Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...

, MacPherson received his Ph.D.
Ph.D.
A Ph.D. is a Doctor of Philosophy, an academic degree.Ph.D. may also refer to:* Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*Piled Higher and Deeper, a web comic strip*PhD: Phantasy Degree, a Korean comic series* PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...

 from Harvard
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...

 in 1970. His thesis, written under the direction of Raoul Bott
Raoul Bott
Raoul Bott, FRS was a Hungarian mathematician known for numerous basic contributions to geometry in its broad sense...

, was entitled Singularities of Maps and Characteristic Classes. Among his many Ph.D students are Kari Vilonen and Mark Goresky
Mark Goresky
Robert Mark Goresky is a Canadian mathematician who invented intersection homology with Robert MacPherson.He received his Ph.D. from Brown University in 1976. His thesis, titled Geometric Cohomology and Homology of Stratified Objects, was written under the direction of MacPherson...

.

In 1992 MacPherson was awarded the NAS Award in Mathematics
NAS Award in Mathematics
The NAS Award in Mathematics is awarded by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences "for excellence of research in the mathematical sciences published within the past ten years." It has been awarded every four years since 1988....

 from the National Academy of Sciences
United States National Academy of Sciences
The National Academy of Sciences is a corporation in the United States whose members serve pro bono as "advisers to the nation on science, engineering, and medicine." As a national academy, new members of the organization are elected annually by current members, based on their distinguished and...

. In 2002 he and Goresky were awarded the Leroy P. Steele Prize by the American Mathematical Society
American Mathematical Society
The American Mathematical Society is an association of professional mathematicians dedicated to the interests of mathematical research and scholarship, which it does with various publications and conferences as well as annual monetary awards and prizes to mathematicians.The society is one of the...

, in 2009 he received the Heinz Hopf Prize
Heinz Hopf Prize
The Heinz Hopf Prize is awarded every two years at ETH Zurich. The prize honours outstanding scientific work in the field of pure mathematics. It is named after the German mathematician Heinz Hopf , Professor of Mathematics at ETH from 1931 to 1965. The prize amount of 30,000 Swiss Francs The Heinz...

 from ETH Zurich
ETH Zurich
The Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich or ETH Zürich is an engineering, science, technology, mathematics and management university in the City of Zurich, Switzerland....

.

Selected publications

  • Goresky, Mark; MacPherson, Robert, La dualité de Poincaré pour les espaces singuliers, C. R. Acad. Sci. Paris Sér. A-B 284 (1977), no. 24, A1549–A1551.
  • Goresky, Mark; MacPherson, Robert, Intersection homology theory, Topology
    Topology (journal)
    Topology is a mathematical journal publishing scholarly articles related to topology and geometry. It was founded by J. H. C. Whitehead in 1962 and is published by Elsevier....

     19 (1980), no. 2, 135–162.
  • Goresky, Mark; MacPherson, Robert, Intersection homology. II, Inventiones Mathematicae
    Inventiones Mathematicae
    Inventiones Mathematicae, often just referred to as Inventiones, is a mathematical journal published monthly by Springer Verlag. It was founded in 1966.-Editors:...

    72 (1983), no. 1, 77–129.

External links

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