Ernest Preston Lane (November 28, 1886,

Russellville, Tennessee Russellville is a census-designated place in Hamblen County, Tennessee, United States. Located along U.S. Route 11E-Tennessee State Route 34 (US 11E/SR 34), it is situated approximately at a midpoint between Whitesburg and Morristown. Demogra ...

– October 1969) was an American mathematician, specializing in

differential geometry Differential geometry is a mathematical discipline that studies the geometry of smooth shapes and smooth spaces, otherwise known as smooth manifolds. It uses the techniques of differential calculus, integral calculus, linear algebra and multili ...

Education and career

In 1909, he received his bachelor's degree in from the

University of Tennessee The University of Tennessee (officially The University of Tennessee, Knoxville; or UT Knoxville; UTK; or UT) is a public land-grant research university in Knoxville, Tennessee. Founded in 1794, two years before Tennessee became the 16th state, ...

. Later in life, he went on to receive his master's degree from the

University of Virginia The University of Virginia (UVA) is a Public university#United States, public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia. Founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson, the university is ranked among the top academic institutions in the United S ...

in 1913. He taught mathematics at several academic institutions before receiving in 1918 from the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...

his PhD under

Ernest Julius Wilczynski Ernest Julius Wilczynski (November 13, 1876 – September 14, 1932) was an American mathematician considered the founder of projective differential geometry. Born in Hamburg, Germany, Wilczynski's family emigrated to America and settled in Chica ...

with thesis '' Conjugate systems with indeterminate axis curves''. At the

University of Wisconsin A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, t ...

Lane was from 1919 to 1923 an assistant professor. At the University of Chicago he was from 1923 to 1927 an assistant professor, from 1927 to 1928 an associate professor, and from 1928 to 1952 a full professor, retiring in 1952 as professor emeritus. He was the chair of the University of Chicago's mathematics department from 1941 to 1946. Lane was a

Guggenheim Fellow Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the ar ...

for the academic year 1926–1927. His doctoral students included

Alice T. Schafer Alice Turner Schafer (June 18, 1915 – September 27, 2009) was an American mathematician. She was one of the founding members of the Association for Women in Mathematics in 1971.Sun Guangyuan Sun Guangyuan (, 1900–1979), also known as Sun Tang (孫鎕), was a Chinese mathematician. He studied projective geometry under Ernest Preston Lane at the University of Chicago. Later Sun became a professor in Tsinghua University, Beijing. S ...

and Abba Verbeck Newton.

Selected publications

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References

1886 births 1969 deaths University of Tennessee alumni University of Virginia alumni University of Chicago alumni University of Chicago faculty 20th-century American mathematicians Differential geometers People from Hamblen County, Tennessee {{US-mathematician-stub