Gordon Whyburn
January 7, 1904 - September 8, 1969
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Scientific Discipline: Mathematics Membership Type:
Member
(elected 1951)
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Mathematician Gordon Whyburn developed a number of new concepts in the field of topology. He introduced work on cyclic elements, the structure of continua, and the notion of convergents in space. He also pioneered the development of interior transformations that are generalizations of analytic functions.
Whyburn attended the University of Texas and earned his PhD in 1927. In 1929 he became an associate at Johns Hopkins University, where he remained until 1934, when he moved to the University of Virginia. He spent the remainder of his academic career at Virginia, serving as a professor of mathematics and chairman of the School of Mathematics. He was a Colloquium speaker of the American Mathematical Society in 1940 and served as vice president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
