John Stillwell

John Stillwell
Born	12 August 1942 Melbourne, Australia
Fields	Mathematics
Institutions	1970 until 2001: Monash University 2002 to date: University of San Francisco
Alma mater	University of Melbourne Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Ph.D,1970)
Doctoral advisor	Hartley Rogers, Jr
Notable awards	Chauvenet Prize (2005)

John Colin Stillwell (born 1942) is an Australian mathematician on the faculties of the University of San Francisco and Monash University.^[1]

Biography

He was born in Melbourne, Australia and lived there until he went to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for his doctorate.^[1] He received his PhD from MIT in 1970, working under Hartley Rogers, Jr.^[2] From 1970 until 2001 he taught at Monash University back in Australia and in 2002 began teaching in San Francisco.^[1]

Honors

In 2005, Stillwell was the recipient of the Mathematical Association of America's prestigious Chauvenet Prize for his article “The Story of the 120-Cell,”^[3] Notices of the AMS, January 2001, pp. 17–24.^[4] In 2012 he became a fellow of the American Mathematical Society.^[5]

Works

Stillwell is the author of many textbooks and other books on mathematics including:

• Classical Topology and Combinatorial Group Theory, 1980, ISBN 0-387-97970-0
• Mathematics and Its History, 1989, 3rd edition 2010, ISBN 0-387-95336-1
• Geometry of Surfaces, 1992, ISBN 0-387-97743-0
• Elements of Algebra: Geometry, Numbers, Equations, 1994, ISBN 0-387-94290-4
• Numbers and Geometry, 1998, ISBN 0-387-98289-2
• Elements of Number Theory, 2003, ISBN 0-387-95587-9
• The Four Pillars of Geometry, 2005, ISBN 0-387-25530-3
• Yearning for the Impossible: The Surprising Truths of Mathematics, 2006, ISBN 1-56881-254-X^[6]

Winner of the 2009 Alpha Sigma Nu Book Award^[7]

Awarded by Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities

• Naive Lie Theory, 2008, ISBN 0-387-98289-2
• Roads to Infinity, 2010, ISBN 978-1-56881-466-7

Selected articles

• "The word problem and the isomorphism problem for groups". Bull. Amer. Math. Soc. (N.S.) 6 (1): 33–56. 1982. doi:10.1090/s0273-0979-1982-14963-1. MR 634433.
• "Efficient computations in groups and simplicial complexes". Trans. Amer. Math. Soc. 276 (2): 715–727. 1983. doi:10.1090/s0002-9947-1983-0688973-8. MR 688973.
• with A. Lenard: "An algorithmically unsolvable problem in analysis". Proc. Amer. Math. Soc. 88 (1): 129–130. 1983. doi:10.1090/s0002-9939-1983-0691292-2. MR 691292.
• "The occurrence problem for mapping class groups". Proc. Amer. Math. Soc. 101 (3): 411–416. 1987. doi:10.1090/s0002-9939-1987-0908639-5. MR 908639.
• "Poincaré and the early history of 3-manifolds" (PDF). Bull. Amer. Math. Soc. (N.S.) 49 (4): 555–576. 2012. doi:10.1090/s0273-0979-2012-01385-x.

References

1. Profile at University of San Francisco
2. Mathematics Genealogy Project
3. Story of the 120-Cell
4. MAA awards page
5. List of Fellows of the American Mathematical Society, retrieved 2013-08-05.
6. Biss, Daniel (June–July 2007). "Review: Yearning for the Impossible, by John Stillwell" (PDF). Notices of the AMS 54 (6): 722–723.
7. "Past Winners of Alpha Sigma Nu Book Awards (1979 - 2012)" (PDF). Alpha Sigma Nu. 2013. Retrieved 6 October 2013.