Paul Monsky

{{Short description|American mathematician (born 1936)}}

{{Infobox scientist

| name = Paul Monsky

| image = Paul Monsky.jpg

| caption = Paul Monsky at Oberwolfach in 2009

| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1936|6|17}}

| birth_place =

| death_date =

| death_place =

| nationality = American

| field = Mathematics

| work_institution = Brandeis University

| alma_mater = Swarthmore College
University of Chicago

| doctoral_advisor = Walter Lewis Baily, Jr.

| known_for = Monsky–Washnitzer cohomology, Monsky's theorem

}}

Paul Monsky (born June 17, 1936) is an American mathematician and professor at Brandeis University.

After earning a bachelor's degree from Swarthmore College, he received his Ph.D. in 1962 from the University of Chicago under the supervision of Walter Lewis Baily, Jr.{{mathgenealogy|id=6511}} He has introduced the Monsky–Washnitzer cohomology and he has worked intensively on Hilbert–Kunz functions and Hilbert–Kunz multiplicity. In 2007, Monsky and Holger Brenner gave an example showing that tight closure does not commute with localization.{{cite journal| last1 = Brenner | first1 = Holger | last2 = Monsky | first2 = Paul |title=Tight closure does not commute with localization|journal= Annals of Mathematics | volume=171|year=2010|issue=1| pages=571–588|doi=10.4007/annals.2010.171.571|mr=2630050|arxiv=0710.2913| s2cid = 5950298 }}

The first proof of Monsky's theorem, published in 1970, which states that a square cannot be divided into an odd number of equal-area triangles, is named after him.{{citation

| last1 = Aigner | first1 = Martin | author1-link = Martin Aigner

| last2 = Ziegler | first2 = Günter M. | author2-link = Günter M. Ziegler

| contribution = One square and an odd number of triangles

| doi = 10.1007/978-3-642-00856-6_20

| edition = 4th

| location = Berlin

| pages = 131–138

| publisher = Springer-Verlag

| title = Proofs from The Book

| year = 2010}}.

In the mid-1970s, Monsky stopped paying U.S. federal income tax in protest against military spending. He resisted income tax withholding by claiming extra exemptions, and this led to a criminal conviction on tax charges in 1980.{{cite news|title=Professor to Face Trial In Antiwar Tax Protest|newspaper=New York Times|date=10 March 1980|page=D8}}

• {{cite news|last=Syre|first=Steven W.|title=More Individuals, Groups Refuse to Pay Taxes|newspaper=The Bryan Times|date=10 April 1980|page=12}}