Allen Hatcher

{{short description|American mathematician}}

{{Infobox scientist

| name = Allen Hatcher

| image = Allen Hatcher.jpg

| image_upright =

| alt =

| caption = Allen Hatcher at Berkeley in 1980

| birth_name = Allen Edward Hatcher

| birth_date = {{birth date and age |1944|10|23|mf=y}}

| birth_place = Indianapolis, Indiana, United States

| death_date =

| death_place =

| nationality = American

| fields = Mathematics

| workplaces = Princeton University
University of California, Los Angeles
Cornell University

| alma_mater = Oberlin College
Stanford University

| thesis_title = A K2 Obstruction for Pseudo-Isotopies

| thesis_url =

| thesis_year = 1971

| doctoral_advisor = Hans Samelson

| doctoral_students = {{plainlist|1=

}}

| known_for =

| awards =

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}}

Allen Edward Hatcher (born October 23, 1944) is an American mathematician specializing in geometric topology.

Biography

Hatcher was born in Indianapolis, Indiana. After obtaining his B.A. and B.Mus. from Oberlin College in 1966,{{cite web |last1=Glaser |first1=Linda B. |title=Mathematician Allen Hatcher receives inaugural book prize |url=https://as.cornell.edu/news/mathematician-allen-hatcher-receives-inaugural-book-prize |access-date=21 February 2025}} he went for his graduate studies to Stanford University, where he received his Ph.D. in 1971.{{cite web|url=https://www.ias.edu/sites/default/files/library/pdfs/ar/annualreportforf1980inst.pdf|title=Annual Report for the Fiscal Year July 1, 1979–June 30, 1980|publisher=Institute for Advanced Study|date=1980|page=41|access-date=January 3, 2021}} His thesis, A K2 Obstruction for Pseudo-Isotopies, was written under the supervision of Hans Samelson.{{MathGenealogy |id=23358}}

Afterwards, Hatcher went to Princeton University, where he was an NSF postdoc for a year, then a lecturer for another year, and then Assistant Professor from 1973 to 1979. He was also a member of the Institute for Advanced Study in 1975–76 and 1979–80. Hatcher moved to the University of California, Los Angeles as an assistant professor in 1977. From 1983 he has been a professor at Cornell University; he is now a professor emeritus.{{cite web|url=https://math.cornell.edu/allen-hatcher|title=Allen Hatcher, Professor Emeritus|publisher=Department of Mathematics, Cornell University}}

In 1978 Hatcher was an invited speaker at the International Congress of Mathematicians in Helsinki.{{cite web|url=https://www.mathunion.org/icm-plenary-and-invited-speakers|title=ICM Plenary and Invited Speakers|publisher=International Mathematical Union|access-date=2024-07-03}}

In 1983 Hatcher proved the Smale conjecture, named after Stephen Smale.Visualization and Mathematics: Experiments, Simulations and Environments. pg. 5. Germany: Springer Berlin Heidelberg, 2012.{{Cite journal|last=Hatcher|first=Allen E.|date=May 1983|title=A Proof of the Smale Conjecture, Diff(S3) ≃ O(4)|journal=The Annals of Mathematics|volume=117|issue=3|pages=553|doi=10.2307/2007035|jstor=2007035}}

Selected publications

=Papers=

=Books=

  • {{cite book|last=Hatcher|first= Allen|url= https://pi.math.cornell.edu/~hatcher/AT/ATpage.html |title=Algebraic topology|publisher= Cambridge University Press|location=Cambridge| year=2002|isbn=0-521-79160-X}}
  • {{cite web|last=Hatcher|first= Allen| url=https://pi.math.cornell.edu/~hatcher/VBKT/VBpage.html| title=Vector Bundles and K-Theory}}
  • {{cite web|last=Hatcher|first= Allen| url=https://pi.math.cornell.edu/~hatcher/SSAT/SSATpage.html|title= Spectral Sequences in Algebraic Topology}}
  • {{cite web|last=Hatcher|first= Allen| url=https://pi.math.cornell.edu/~hatcher/3M/3Mdownloads.html|title= Basic Topology of 3-Manifolds}}
  • {{cite web|last=Hatcher|first= Allen| url=https://pi.math.cornell.edu/~hatcher/TN/TNpage.html|title= Topology of Numbers}}

References

{{reflist}}