Charles Wells (4 May 1937 in

Atlanta, Georgia Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

– 17 June 2017) was an American mathematician known for his fundamental contributions to

category theory Category theory is a general theory of mathematical structures and their relations that was introduced by Samuel Eilenberg and Saunders Mac Lane in the middle of the 20th century in their foundational work on algebraic topology. Nowadays, cate ...

. He was Professor Emeritus of Mathematics at

Case Western Reserve University Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) is a private research university in Cleveland, Ohio. Case Western Reserve was established in 1967, when Western Reserve University, founded in 1826 and named for its location in the Connecticut Western Reser ...

. Wells taught there for about 35 years, with sabbatical interruptions at

ETH Zürich (colloquially) , former_name = eidgenössische polytechnische Schule , image = ETHZ.JPG , image_size = , established = , type = Public , budget = CHF 1.896 billion (2021) , rector = Günther Dissertori , president = Joël Mesot , ac ...

(in mathematics) and

Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

(in computing science). He had a research career in mathematics in

finite fields In mathematics, a finite field or Galois field (so-named in honor of Évariste Galois) is a field that contains a finite number of elements. As with any field, a finite field is a set on which the operations of multiplication, addition, subtra ...

group theory In abstract algebra, group theory studies the algebraic structures known as group (mathematics), groups. The concept of a group is central to abstract algebra: other well-known algebraic structures, such as ring (mathematics), rings, field ...

and

. In the last twenty years of this life he had also been interested in th
language of mathematics
and related issues concerning teaching and communicating abstract ideas.

Publications

In addition to his scholarly publications, Wells produced ''A Handbook of Mathematical Discourse,'' which is a dictionary of words and concepts used by mathematicians that are easily misunderstood, explained in a way that laypersons can also appreciate. As a life-long

shape note Shape notes are a musical notation designed to facilitate congregational and social singing. The notation, introduced in late 18th century England, became a popular teaching device in American singing schools. Shapes were added to the noteh ...

singer, in 2002 Wells jointly compiled a tunebook called ''Oberlin Harmony,'' which included some of his own compositions.

Books

* * Michael Barr and Charles Wells
''Category Theory for Computing Science''
(1999). *

Selected research articles

Surveys

Sketches
(1993) – a survey of the literature on sketches

References

External links

*
Gyre & Gimble
– blog on the language of math, category theory, and teaching abstract ideas
Abstract Math
– for university-level math students {{DEFAULTSORT:Wells, Charles Living people 20th-century American mathematicians 21st-century American mathematicians 1937 births People from Atlanta Mathematicians from Georgia (U.S. state)