Featured Author: Steve Smale
Dr. Stephen Smale (b. July 15, 1930) was born in Flint, Michigan (USA), attending the University of Michigan for both his Bachelor's and PhD degree. After research appointments to the University of Chicago (1956-58) and the the Princeton Institute for Advanced Study (1958-1960), he joined the Faculty of Mathematics at UC Berkeley in 1960, becoming Full Professor in 1964. In 1994 he joined the City University of Hong Kong as a Distinguished University Professor.
Dr. Smale was awarded the Fields Medal in 1966. In recognition for his lifelong contribution to mathematics, he was awarded the National Medal of Science (USA) in 1996, and the 2006/2007 Wolf Prize for Mathematics.
Smale is perhaps best known for three major contributions. He surprised the math world by proving the existence of sphere eversion. He later proved the Poincaré conjecture for dimensions of five or greater, and generalized this result with his proof of the h-corboidism theorem. His development of the Smale horseshoe helped start a new line of research in dynamical systems.
Scholarpedia article:
- Smale horseshoe (2007), Scholarpedia, 2(11):3012
(Author profile by Leo Trottier)
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