John Stillwell

John Stillwell
Born	(1942-08-12) 12 August 1942 (age 82) Melbourne, Australia
Alma mater	University of Melbourne Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Ph.D, 1970)
Awards	Chauvenet Prize (2005)
Scientific career
Fields	Mathematics
Institutions	1970 until 2001: Monash University 2002 to date: University of San Francisco
Doctoral advisor	Hartley Rogers, Jr

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] who had himself worked under Alonzo Church.^[3] 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,"^[4] Notices of the AMS, January 2001, pp. 17–24.^[5] In 2012, he became a fellow of the American Mathematical Society.^[6]

Works

Books

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
  • 2012 pbk reprint of 1993 2nd edition ISBN 978-0-387-97970-0
• Mathematics and Its History, 1989, pbk reprint of 2nd edition 2002; 3rd edition 2010, ISBN 0-387-95336-1^[7]
• Geometry of Surfaces, 1992, ISBN 0-387-97743-0; ^[8] 2012 pbk reprint of 1st edition
• Elements of Algebra: Geometry, Numbers, Equations, 1994,^[9] 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,^[10] ISBN 0-387-25530-3
• Yearning for the Impossible: The Surprising Truths of Mathematics, 2006, ISBN 1-56881-254-X^[11]
• Naive Lie Theory, 2008, ISBN 0-387-98289-2^[12]
• Roads to Infinity, 2010, ISBN 978-1-56881-466-7
• The Real Numbers: An Introduction to Set Theory and Analysis, 2013, ISBN 978-3319015767^[13]
• Elements of Mathematics: From Euclid to Gödel, 2016, ISBN 978-0691171685^[14]
• Reverse Mathematics: Proofs from the Inside Out, 2018, ISBN 978-0691177175
• A Concise History of Mathematics for Philosophers, 2019, ISBN 978-1108610124
• The Story of Proof: Logic and the History of Mathematics, 2022, ISBN 978-0691234366

Selected articles

• Stillwell, John (1982). "The word problem and the isomorphism problem for groups". Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society. (N.S.). 6 (1): 33–56. doi:10.1090/s0273-0979-1982-14963-1. MR 0634433.
• Stillwell, John (1983). "Efficient computations in groups and simplicial complexes". Transactions of the American Mathematical Society. 276 (2): 715–727. doi:10.1090/s0002-9947-1983-0688973-8. MR 0688973.
• Lenard, Andrew; Stillwell, John (1983). "An algorithmically unsolvable problem in analysis". Proceedings of the American Mathematical Society. 88 (1): 129–130. doi:10.1090/s0002-9939-1983-0691292-2. MR 0691292.
• Stillwell, John (1987). "The occurrence problem for mapping class groups". Proceedings of the American Mathematical Society. 101 (3): 411–416. doi:10.1090/s0002-9939-1987-0908639-5. MR 0908639.
• Stillwell, John (January 2001). "The Story of the 120-Cell" (PDF). Notices of the AMS. 48 (1): 17–25.
• Stillwell, John (2012). "Poincaré and the early history of 3-manifolds" (PDF). Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society. (N.S.). 49 (4): 555–576. doi:10.1090/s0273-0979-2012-01385-x.

References

1. "John Stillwell | University of San Francisco". www.usfca.edu. Archived from the original on 29 September 2010.
2. "John Stillwell - The Mathematics Genealogy Project". www.mathgenealogy.org.
3. "Hartley Rogers, Jr. - The Mathematics Genealogy Project". www.mathgenealogy.org.
4. "Story of the 120-Cell" (PDF).
5. "MAA awards page". Archived from the original on 31 May 2000. Retrieved 5 January 2008.
6. List of Fellows of the American Mathematical Society, retrieved 5 August 2013.
7. Wilders, Richard J. (16 August 2010). "Review of Mathematics and Its History by John Stillwell". MAA Reviews, Mathematical Association of America.
8. "Geometry of Surfaces by John Stillwell (Review by Choice Review, J. McCleary)". Library Catalog, University of Chicago.
9. Freudenburg, Gene (1 January 1996). "Review of Elements of Algebra". The American Mathematical Monthly. 103 (2): 186–189. doi:10.2307/2975124. JSTOR 2975124.
10. Hunacek, Mark (1 January 2007). "Review of The Four Pillars of Geometry". The Mathematical Gazette. 91 (521): 375–378. doi:10.1017/S0025557200181951. JSTOR 40378384. S2CID 164895282.
11. Biss, Daniel (June–July 2007). "Review: Yearning for the Impossible, by John Stillwell" (PDF). Notices of the AMS. 54 (6): 722–723.
12. Stenger, Allen (6 October 2008). "Review of Naive Lie Theory by John Stillwell". MAA Reviews, Mathematical Association of America.
13. Stenger, Allen (5 February 2014). "Review of The Real Numbers: An Introduction to Set Theory and Analysis by John Stillwell". MAA Reviews, Mathematical Association of America.
14. Hunacek, Mark (12 May 2016). "Review of Elements of Mathematics: From Euclid to Gödel by John Stillwell". MAA Reviews, Mathematical Association of America.