Education
Princeton University. University of Michigan. Nebraska Wesleyan University.
mathematician university professor topologist
Princeton University. University of Michigan. Nebraska Wesleyan University.
He is also the author of Elementary Linear Algebra. He completed his undergraduate education at Nebraska Wesleyan University and received his Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Michigan in 1956. His advisor was Edwin East. Moise.
Earlier in his career he taught at the University of Michigan and at Princeton University.
Among his contributions to mathematics is the development of what is sometimes called the Munkres assignment algorithm. A significant contribution in Topology is his obstruction theory for the smoothing of homeomorphisms.
These developments establish a connection between the John Milnor groups of differentiable structures on spheres and the smoothing methods of classical analysis.