Hassler Whitney
Princeton University
March 23, 1907 - May 10, 1989
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Scientific Discipline: Mathematics Membership Type:
Member
(elected 1945)
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Hassler Whitney’s mathematical research covered many fields, including graph theory, combinatorics, and, most significantly, differential topology. His discovery of characteristic classes has led to his name being included in the term Stiefel-Whitney characteristic classes. He was also a proponent of mathematical education at the elementary level, giving lecturers on the subject and leading workshops for teachers.
Whitney graduated from Yale University in 1928 and conducted his doctoral research at Harvard University, receiving his PhD in 1932. He accepted a position at Harvard in 1930 as an instructor of mathematics and was offered a full professorship in 1946, a position he held until 1952. That same year he became a professor instructor at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, New Jersey, where he remained until 1977, when he became a professor emeritus. He was a member of the Applied Mathematics Panel of the National Defense Research Committee from 1943 to 1945 and chairman of the National Science Foundation Mathematics Panel from 1953 until 1956. He also served as editor of the American Journal of Mathematics from 1944 to 1949 and of Mathematical Reviews from 1949 until 1954.
