Charles Terence Clegg "Terry" Wall (born 14 December 1936) is a British mathematician, educated at Marlborough and

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any ...

. He is an

emeritus ''Emeritus/Emerita'' () is an honorary title granted to someone who retires from a position of distinction, most commonly an academic faculty position, but is allowed to continue using the previous title, as in "professor emeritus". In some c ...

professor of the

University of Liverpool The University of Liverpool (abbreviated UOL) is a Public university, public research university in Liverpool, England. Founded in 1881 as University College Liverpool, Victoria University (United Kingdom), Victoria University, it received Ro ...

, where he was first appointed professor in 1965. From 1978 to 1980 he was the president of the

London Mathematical Society The London Mathematical Society (LMS) is one of the United Kingdom's Learned society, learned societies for mathematics (the others being the Royal Statistical Society (RSS), the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications (IMA), the Edinburgh ...

Work

His early work was in cobordism theory in

algebraic topology Algebraic topology is a branch of mathematics that uses tools from abstract algebra to study topological spaces. The basic goal is to find algebraic invariant (mathematics), invariants that classification theorem, classify topological spaces up t ...

; this includes his 1959 Cambridge PhD thesis entitled "Algebraic aspects of cobordism", written under the direction of Frank Adams and Christopher Zeeman. His research was then mainly in the area of

manifold In mathematics, a manifold is a topological space that locally resembles Euclidean space near each point. More precisely, an n-dimensional manifold, or ''n-manifold'' for short, is a topological space with the property that each point has a N ...

s, particularly

geometric topology In mathematics, geometric topology is the study of manifolds and Map (mathematics)#Maps as functions, maps between them, particularly embeddings of one manifold into another. History Geometric topology as an area distinct from algebraic topo ...

and related

abstract algebra In mathematics, more specifically algebra, abstract algebra or modern algebra is the study of algebraic structures, which are set (mathematics), sets with specific operation (mathematics), operations acting on their elements. Algebraic structur ...

included in

surgery theory In mathematics, specifically in geometric topology, surgery theory is a collection of techniques used to produce one finite-dimensional manifold from another in a 'controlled' way, introduced by . Milnor called this technique ''surgery'', while An ...

, of which he was one of the founders. In 1964 he introduced the Brauer–Wall group of a field. His 1970 research monograph "Surgery on Compact Manifolds" is a major reference work in geometric topology. In 1971 he

conjecture In mathematics, a conjecture is a conclusion or a proposition that is proffered on a tentative basis without proof. Some conjectures, such as the Riemann hypothesis or Fermat's conjecture (now a theorem, proven in 1995 by Andrew Wiles), ha ...

d that every

finitely generated group In algebra, a finitely generated group is a group ''G'' that has some finite generating set ''S'' so that every element of ''G'' can be written as the combination (under the group operation) of finitely many elements of ''S'' and of inverses o ...

is accessible. The conjecture motivated much progress in the understanding of splittings of groups. In 1985 Martin Dunwoody proved the conjecture for the class of finitely presented groups. The resolution of the full conjecture took until 1991 when, surprising to most mathematicians at the time, Dunwoody found a finitely generated group that is not accessible and hence the conjecture turned out to be not correct in its general formulation. Wall's work since the mid-1970s has mostly been in

singularity theory In mathematics, singularity theory studies spaces that are almost manifolds, but not quite. A string can serve as an example of a one-dimensional manifold, if one neglects its thickness. A singularity can be made by balling it up, dropping it ...

as developed by R. Thom, J. Milnor and V. Arnold, and especially concerns the classification of isolated singularities of differentiable maps and of

algebraic varieties Algebraic varieties are the central objects of study in algebraic geometry, a sub-field of mathematics. Classically, an algebraic variety is defined as the set of solutions of a system of polynomial equations over the real or complex numbers. ...

. He has written two research monographs on singularity theory, "The Geometry of Topological Stability" (1995) (containing a great deal of original work) with Andrew du Plessis, and "Singular Points of Plane Curves" (2004). His notable students include Michael Boardman, Bill Bruce, Andrew Casson, Francis E. A. Johnson, David Mond, Andrew du Plessis, and David Trotman.

Awards

*1965 – Berwick Prize *1966 – Invited address at the 1966 ICM in Moscow *1969 – Elected Fellow of the

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

*1970 – Invited address at the 1970 ICM in Nice *1976 – Senior Whitehead Prize *1988 – Pólya Prize *1988 –

Sylvester Medal The Sylvester Medal is a bronze medal awarded by the Royal Society for the encouragement of mathematical research, and accompanied by a £1,000 prize. It was named in honour of James Joseph Sylvester, the Savilian chair of geometry, Savilian Prof ...

*1990 – Elected a Foreign Member of the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters *2000 – Elected Honorary Member of the Irish Mathematical Society *2012 – Fellow of the

American Mathematical Society The American Mathematical Society (AMS) is an association of professional mathematicians dedicated to the interests of mathematical research and scholarship, and serves the national and international community through its publications, meetings, ...

Personal life

Terry Wall has been married to Sandra Hearnshaw since 1959, and they have four children together. He was the treasurer of the Wirral area SDP from 1985 until its merger with the then Liberal Party in 1988. Wall continued on as treasurer of the newly formed Wirral West Liberal Democrats but, as of May 2020, is no longer holding this position. Wall has been an LEA appointed

governor A governor is an politician, administrative leader and head of a polity or Region#Political regions, political region, in some cases, such as governor-general, governors-general, as the head of a state's official representative. Depending on the ...

of West Kirby Grammar School since 1987 but has also given up this position. He has also held the post of treasurer at

Hoylake Hoylake () is a coast, seaside town in the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral, Merseyside, England. It is at the north west of the Wirral Peninsula, near West Kirby and where the River Dee, Wales, River Dee meets the Irish Sea. At the 2021 United K ...

Chamber Concert Society. He has 7 grandchildren and 4 great grandchildren as of 2024, Rory, Felix, Valentina and Leo.

References

External links

*
His contact details and list of recent publicationsSurgery theory
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wall, C. T. C. 1936 births Living people Scientists from Bristol People educated at Marlborough College Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge British topologists Academics of the University of Liverpool 20th-century British mathematicians 21st-century British mathematicians Fellows of the Royal Society Fellows of the American Mathematical Society