Jon Peter May (born September 16, 1939 in
New York) is an
American
American(s) may refer to:
* American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America"
** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America
** American ancestry, pe ...
mathematician
A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems.
Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, structure, space, models, and change.
History
On ...
working in the fields of
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 invariants that classify topological spaces up to homeomorphism, though usually most classify ...
,
category theory,
homotopy theory, and the foundational aspects of
spectra. He is known, in particular, for the
May spectral sequence and for coining the term
operad
In mathematics, an operad is a structure that consists of abstract operations, each one having a fixed finite number of inputs (arguments) and one output, as well as a specification of how to compose these operations. Given an operad O, one define ...
. The word "operad" was created by May as a
portmanteau
A portmanteau word, or portmanteau (, ) is a blend of words[monad
Monad may refer to:
Philosophy
* Monad (philosophy), a term meaning "unit"
**Monism, the concept of "one essence" in the metaphysical and theological theory
** Monad (Gnosticism), the most primal aspect of God in Gnosticism
* ''Great Monad'', a ...](_blank)
" (and also because his mother was an opera singer).
Education and career
May received a
Bachelor of Arts
Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four year ...
degree from
Swarthmore College in 1960 and a
Doctor of Philosophy
A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...
degree from
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ...
in 1964.
His thesis, written under the direction of
John Moore, was titled ''The cohomology of restricted Lie algebras and of Hopf algebras: Application to the Steenrod algebra''.
From 1964 to 1967, May taught at
Yale University
Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...
. He has been a faculty member at the
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chic ...
since 1967, and a professor since 1970.
Awards
In 2012 he became a 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, ...
.
List of Fellows of the American Mathematical Society
retrieved 2013-02-02.
He has advised over 60 doctoral students, including Mark Behrens, Andrew Blumberg
Andrew is the English form of a given name common in many countries. In the 1990s, it was among the top ten most popular names given to boys in English-speaking countries. "Andrew" is frequently shortened to "Andy" or "Drew". The word is derived ...
, Frederick Cohen, Ib Madsen
Ib Henning Madsen (born 12 April 1942, in Copenhagen)[Curriculum vitae](_blank)
retrieved 3 February 2013. is a Dan ...
, Emily Riehl, Mike Shulman and Zhouli Xu.
References
External links
May's homepage at the University of Chicago
Jon Peter May
at the Mathematics Genealogy Project
The Mathematics Genealogy Project (MGP) is a web-based database for the academic genealogy of mathematicians.. By 31 December 2021, it contained information on 274,575 mathematical scientists who contributed to research-level mathematics. For a ty ...
20th-century American mathematicians
21st-century American mathematicians
Topologists
University of Chicago faculty
Yale University faculty
Princeton University alumni
Swarthmore College alumni
Fellows of the American Mathematical Society
1939 births
Living people
Mathematicians from New York (state)
{{categorytheory-stub