James Dugundji (August 30, 1919 – January 8, 1985) was an American mathematician, a professor of mathematics at the
University of Southern California
, mottoeng = "Let whoever earns the palm bear it"
, religious_affiliation = Nonsectarian—historically Methodist
, established =
, accreditation = WSCUC
, type = Private research university
, academic_affiliations =
, endowment = $8. ...
.
[. See in particula]
p. 244
for a brief biography of Dugundji.[Note about the life and work of Dugundji](_blank)
by Andrzej Granas in their book ''Fixed Point Theory'', Springer, 2005. Reprinted in , p. 9.
Dugundji's parents emigrated from
Greece
Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders wit ...
to
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...
, where Dugundji was born in 1919. He studied at
New York University
New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then- Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin.
In 1832, ...
, graduating with a B.A. in 1940, and went on to graduate school at the
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase ''universitas magistrorum et scholarium'', which r ...
, studying there under the supervision of
Witold Hurewicz
Witold Hurewicz (June 29, 1904 – September 6, 1956) was a Polish mathematician.
Early life and education
Witold Hurewicz was born in Łódź, at the time one of the main Polish industrial hubs with economy focused on the textile industry. Hi ...
. After two years of study at UNC, Dugundji joined the
United States Air Force
The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army S ...
for the duration of
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
, and then completed his doctorate from 1946 to 1948 at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern t ...
, to which his advisor had moved. He then took a faculty position at the University of Southern California, where he remained for the rest of his career. He was also a long-time member of the editorial boards of two mathematics journals, the ''
Pacific Journal of Mathematics
The Pacific Journal of Mathematics is a mathematics research journal supported by several universities and research institutes, and currently published on their behalf by Mathematical Sciences Publishers, a non-profit academic publishing organisati ...
'' and ''
Topology and its Applications''.
Dugundji is the author of the textbook ''Topology'' (Allyn and Bacon, 1966), on
general topology
In mathematics, general topology is the branch of topology that deals with the basic set-theoretic definitions and constructions used in topology. It is the foundation of most other branches of topology, including differential topology, geomet ...
. Reviewer M. Edelstein wrote that this was "one of the best among the numerous books on the subject", and it went through numerous reprintings. With Andrzej Granas he also wrote the research monograph ''Fixed Point Theory''; originally planned as a two-volume series, the first volume was published by
Państwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe
Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN (''Polish Scientific Publishers PWN''; until 1991 ''Państwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe'' - ''National Scientific Publishers PWN'', PWN) is a Polish book publisher, founded in 1951, when it split from the Wydawnictwa Szkolne i ...
in 1982, and the complete text was published as a single volume in 2003 by
Springer-Verlag
Springer Science+Business Media, commonly known as Springer, is a German multinational publishing company of books, e-books and peer-reviewed journals in science, humanities, technical and medical (STM) publishing.
Originally founded in 1842 ...
.
[Review of Fixed Point Theory, Springer-Verlag, 2005, by A. G. Kartsatos, .] Reviewer A. G. Kartsatos called the completed volume "the most comprehensive, well-written and complete book on
fixed point theory to date".
In his own research, as well as producing highly cited works on problems of pure mathematics such as the
Tietze extension theorem, Dugundji did important early work in
cheminformatics
Cheminformatics (also known as chemoinformatics) refers to use of physical chemistry theory with computer and information science techniques—so called "''in silico''" techniques—in application to a range of descriptive and prescriptive proble ...
. With co-authors
I. Ugi, R. Kopp and D. Marquarding, he wrote a book on this subject as well, ''Perspectives in Theoretical Stereochemistry'' (Springer, 1984).
In 2005, an international conference on fixed point theorems was held in Dugundji's memory in
Będlewo,
Poland
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, , is a country in Central Europe. Poland is divided into Voivodeships of Poland, sixteen voivodeships and is the fifth most populous member state of the European Union (EU), with over 38 mill ...
.
[.]
Selected publications
*
*
* with
Ernest Michael:
*
*
*
* with
M. L. Curtis:
* with F.-W. Bauer:
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dugundji, James
1919 births
1985 deaths
20th-century American mathematicians
American people of Greek descent
Scientists from New York City
Topologists
New York University alumni
Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni
University of Southern California faculty
Mathematicians from New York (state)