Topology Atlas Document # topd-31

TOPOLOGICAL COMMENTARY

Volume 7, #1, February 1, 2002

Edited by Melvin Henriksen

commentary@at.yorku.ca

I continue to invite commentary on any article in any issue of TopCom or on any topic of general interest to topologists, including news about topologists or topological activity.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

  1. A memorial for Ben Fitzpatrick (1931-1999)
  2. "Who discovered analytic sets" by G. G. Lorentz
  3. John Nash
  4. Book review by Ubiratan D'Ambrosio: Handbook of the History of General Topology, Volume 2
  5. Book review by Gordon Fisher: Handbook of the History of General Topology, Volume 1
  6. Book review by Gordon Pym: Algebra in the Stone-Cech Compactification by Neil Hindman and Dona Strauss
  7. A Beautiful Mind; reviewed by Lynne M. Butler
  8. Flatterland: Like Flatland, Only More So; reviewed by Jody Trout
  9. Mappings that preserve realcompactness by Robert Blair
  10. Prof. Leopold Vietoris (1891-2002)
  11. Still more on Ben Fitzpatrick
  12. John Nash: A Brilliant Madness
  13. Photos from Toposym 2001 by Jerry Vaughan

A memorial for Ben Fitzpatrick (1931-1999)

"Three Hundred Pounds of Integrity" by Mike Reed and Judy Kennedy.
Published in Topology Proceedings 25 Spring (2000) pp. i-xx.. Reprinted with permission of Topology Proceedings.

See also

Who discovered analytic sets by G. G. Lorentz

We are grateful for permission from Springer-Verlag and the author G.G. Lorentz for permission to reproduce the following interesting piece of mathematical history.
"Who discovered analytic sets" by G.G. Lorentz.
Published in the Fall 2001 issue of the Mathematical Intelligencer, pp.28-32.
to appear

John F. Nash, Jr.

Contribution of John Nash to General Topology and Real Analysis by Som Naimpally

Book review by Ubiratan D'Ambrosio: Handbook of the History of General Topology, Volume 2

Handbook of the History of General Topology, Volume 2 edited by C. E. Aull and R. Lowen, reviewed by Ubiratan D'Ambrosio

Book review by Gordon Fisher: Handbook of the History of General Topology, Volume 1

Handbook of the History of General Topology, Volume 1 edited by C. E. Aull and R. Lowen, reviewed by Gordon Fisher

Book review by Gordon Pym: Algebra in the Stone-Cech Compactification by Neil Hindman and Dona Strauss

See Neil Hindman's page for Algebra in the Stone-Cech Compactification for a book review by Gordon Pym [Semigroup Forum 59 (1999), 310-314] of Algebra in the Stone-Cech Compactification by Neil Hindman and Dona Strauss [ISBN 3-11-015420-X) was published in 1998 by Walter de Gruyter & Co.]

A Beautiful Mind; reviewed by Lynne M. Butler

See Notices of the AMS, April 2002, Volume 49 , Number 4 for a review of the movie A Beautiful Mind by Lynne M. Butler.

Flatterland: Like Flatland, Only More So; reviewed by Jody Trout

See Notices of the AMS, April 2002, Volume 49 , Number 4 for a book review by Jody Trout of Flatterland: Like Flatland, Only More So by Ian Stewart.

Mappings that preserve realcompactness by Robert Blair

Editor's Note: The following preprint was circulating in the topological community in the early 1970's. After several of the results were achieved independently and published by Nancy Dykes, and after others were credited to Blair and proved in Maurice Weir's Hewitt-Nachbin Spaces, Professor Blair didn't further pursue publication. The original manuscript was 11 typewritten pages long. The document produced here is a verbatim rendering of that document using contemporary typesetting conventions. Many thanks to University of Tennessee at Martin student Luke Conway for the typesetting of this document. - John Schommer
Mappings that preserve by realcompactness Robert L. Blair

Prof. Leopold Vietoris (1891-2002)

The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reported last Saturday that Prof. Leopold Vietoris of Innsbruck, aged 110 years, died last Tuesday (9 April), shortly before completing his 111th birthday (he was born on 4 June 1891). According to the obituary, he was the oldest Austrian.

C. J. Scriba

Editor's note: Actually Vietoris was the oldest Austrian male.

Still more on Ben Fitzpatrick

Dear FOB's,

I just wanted to let you know that Ben's son, Jack, rescued Ben's web page from the AU Computer System before it was deleted and has re-installed it at

http://www.auburn.edu/~fitzpjd/ben/

It has some pretty neat stuff on it (especially some old pictures) if you want to take a look.

Jack Brown

See also

John Nash: A Brilliant Madness

Thanks to Peter Freyd and Scott Williams for forwarding this item to TopCom.

American Experience has mounted a handsome website for its upcoming program on Nash "A Brilliant Madness" airing on April 28. The website is http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/nash/index.html

Photo from Toposym 2001 by Jerry Vaughan

Thanks to Jerry Vaughan for these photographs from Toposym 2001 in Prague.
http://www.uncg.edu/~vaughanj/prague01/prague01.1.html

Copyright © 1995-2002 by Topology Atlas. All rights reserved.