Saunders Mac Lane—20th Century Mathematician
Birth
Saunders Mac Lane (born 4 August 1909) is a US mathematician.
http://www.biographybase.com/biography/MacLane_Saunders.html
Saunders Mac Lane was born in 1909 in San Francisco, California.
http://www.topblogarea.com/sitedetails_5568.html
Education
Saunders Mac Lane, 95, Pioneer of Algebra's Category Theory, Dies” The University of Chicago’s Saunders Mac Lane, one of the most influential American mathematicians of the 20th century and a recipient of the National Medal of Science, died Thursday, April 14, in San Francisco after a long illness. He was 95. “He was one of the most important figures in the University of Chicago Mathematics Department, or indeed in American mathematics,” David Eisenbud wrote of Mac Lane in the preface of the latter’s autobiography, which will be published in late May by A K Peters Ltd. Eisenbud, who received his Ph.D. in Mathematics from the University of Chicago under Mac Lane’s supervision in 1970, is the president of the American Mathematical Society and director of the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute in Berkeley, Calif.
http://www-news.uchicago.edu/releases/05/050421.maclane.shtml
Saunders Mac Lane of the University of Chicago is recognized as one of the most important mathematicians of the mid-twentieth century. He is often remembered for his publications in the 1960s that created, along with the work of Sammy Eilenberg, the new field of Category Theory. To mention only his mathematics is a mistake when describing Mac Lane. He was an imposing, tenancious, outgoing leader. He was physically large, radiating confidence. His talks at AMS-MAA sessions were heavily attended.
http://curvebank.calstatela.edu/birthdayindex/aug/aug3maclane/aug3macl...
Work
Saunders Mac Lane (4 August 1909, Taftville, Connecticut – 14 April 2005, San Francisco) was an American mathematician who cofounded category theory with Samuel Eilenberg.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saunders_Mac_Lane
Saunders Mac Lane died on April 14, 2005. He was my thesis advisor---Irving Kaplansky was his first student, I was nearly his last; perhaps John Thompson is the most illustrious. His Autobiogrphy will soon appear, published by AK Peters. A few months ago I wrote a preface for this book which contains some of my favorite stories about him. He was a great figure, and very important for me personally. I and many others will miss him.
Saunders Mac Lane: A Mathematical Autobiography is the personal memoir of the late Saunders mac lane, one of the most influential mathematicians of the 20th century. His life story takes the reader on fascinating and informative journey through the most important milestones of the mathematical world of the last ten decades. Saunders provides the reader with a glimpse into his "life and times" through a blending of professional observations with highly personal commentary. He recounts his experiences in pre-war Gottingen (where he studied under David Hilbert and witnessed the collapse of a great German academic and cultural tradition under the political pressures of a brutal Nazi regime). He reflects on his work with Samuel Eilenberg and the impact of their creation of a new mathematical language and theory.
http://gigapedia.org/items/62945/saunders-mac-lane--a-mathematical-aut...
Saunders Mac Lane -- Encyclopædia Britannica - Saunders Mac Lane American mathematician who was a cocreator of category theory, an architect of homological algebra, and an advocate of categorical ...; Mac Lane, SaundersItScienza.net: Mac Lane, Saunders.
Saunders Mac Lane was the joint creator " with Samuel Eilenberg " of the subject of category theory, which permanently changed the way in which mathematicians view the foundations of their subject.
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_20050426/ai_n14601092
He was actually the co-founder of the category theory with Samuel Eilenberg. Saunders earned a BA from Yale University in 1930 and a MA from the University of Chicago, while attending the University he published his first paper in the category of physics with Irving Langmuir. ... He then held a brief tenure at Harvard from 1938 to 1947 and after that he spent the rest of his career at the University of Chicago.
http://www.topblogarea.com/sitedetails_5568.html
Saunders Mac Lane, one of the founders of category theory, wrote this exposition to bring categories to the masses. Mac Lane does not get lost in pointless abstraction, but instead brings to the fore the important concepts that make category theory useful, such as adjoint functors and universal objects. His text is more comprehensive than most mathematicians will ever need, and consequently is also an excellent reference.
http://www.arikah.com/encyclopedia/List_of_publications_in_mathematics
