Witold Hurewicz

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Witold Hurewicz (born June 29, 1904 in Łódź , † September 6, 1956 in Uxmal , Mexico ) was an important Polish mathematician . Hurewicz dealt with topology .

As the son of an industrialist, Hurewicz studied in Warsaw and later in Vienna . His teachers Hans Hahn and Karl Menger were there . He completed his dissertation in 1926. In the following two years, the Rockefeller scholarship enabled him to continue studying in Amsterdam . From 1928 to 1936 he worked as Luitzen Brouwer's assistant . He used a one-year training leave to travel to the United States, where he attended the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton (New Jersey) . He decided to stay in the United States. There he first worked at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill . From 1945 until his death he worked at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology . He died on an excursion during the International Symposium on Algebraic Topology in Uxmal , Mexico , due to a carelessness caused by a fall from a Mayan step pyramid:

"... a paragon of absentmindedness, a failing that probably led to his death.
(... an embodiment of spiritual absence; a weakness that probably also led to his death) "

- Dictionary of Scientific Biography

Scientific work

Hurewicz's early works deal with set theory and topology , the writings mentioned below serve as examples:

"... a remarkable result of this first period [1930] is its topological embedding of separable metric spaces into compact spaces of the same (finite) dimension.
(... a remarkable result of the first period [1930] is the topological embedding of separable metric spaces in compact spaces of the same (finite) dimension.) "

- Dictionary of Scientific Biography

Probably the most notable contributions to mathematics are the definition of the higher homotopy groups in 1934–35 and his discovery of the long exact sequences for homotopy groups of fibers . The set of Hurewicz shows the relationship between homotopy and homology groups of a space forth. During the Second World War he turned to applied mathematics and the militarily interesting behavior of servo motors , research that was kept secret for this reason. Hurewicz is together with Henry Wallman (1915-1992) the author of the important book Dimension Theory , which was published in 1941:

"... is truly a classic. It presents the theory of dimension for separable metric spaces with what seems to be an impossible mixture of depth, clarity, precision, succinctness, and comprehensiveness.
(... truly a classic. It represents the theory of separable metric spaces with an inimitable mixture of depth, clarity, accuracy, conciseness and scope.) "

- reviewers

A second book was published in 1958: Lectures on ordinary differential equations is an introduction to ordinary differential equations , which in turn impresses with the clarity of his thoughts and an excellent writing style.

In 1949, Hurewicz was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences . In 1950 he gave a plenary lecture at the International Congress of Mathematicians in Cambridge (Massachusetts) ( Homology and Homotopy ).

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personal data
SURNAME Hurewicz, Witold
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Polish mathematician
DATE OF BIRTH June 29, 1904
PLACE OF BIRTH Łódź
DATE OF DEATH September 6, 1956
Place of death Uxmal , Mexico