Michael Barr (born January 22, 1937) is an American mathematician who is the

Peter Redpath Peter Redpath (August 1, 1821 – February 1, 1894) was a Canadian businessman and philanthropist, closely associated with Redpath Sugar. Biography Redpath was born in Montreal, Lower Canada, the son of a Scottish immigrant, John Redpath, ...

Emeritus Professor of Pure Mathematics at

McGill University McGill University (French: Université McGill) is an English-language public research university in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1821 by royal charter,Frost, Stanley Brice. ''McGill University, Vol. I. For the Advancement of Learning, ...

Early life and education

He was born in

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...

, and graduated from the 202nd class of Central High School in June 1954. He graduated from the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of f ...

in February 1959 and received a PhD from the same school in June 1962.

Career

Barr studied mathematics at the University of Pennsylvania, graduating with a bachelor's degree in 1959 and a doctorate in 1962 under

David Kent Harrison David Kent Harrison (6 April 1931, Massachusetts – 21 December 1999, Barnstable, Massachusetts) was an American mathematician, specializing in algebra, particularly homological algebra and valuation theory. He completed his Ph.D. at Princeton ...

''(Cohomology of Commutative Algebras''). He was then an instructor at

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

and from 1964 Assistant Professor and later Associate Professor at the

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC, U of I, Illinois, or University of Illinois) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area, Illinois, United ...

. In 1968 he became Associate Professor and in 1972 Professor at McGill University. In 1967 and 1975/76 he was a visiting scientist at

ETH Zurich ETH Zurich (; ) is a public university in Zurich, Switzerland. Founded in 1854 with the stated mission to educate engineers and scientists, the university focuses primarily on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. ETH Zurich ran ...

and in 1970/71 at the

University of Fribourg The University of Fribourg (; ) is a public university located in Fribourg, Switzerland. The roots of the university can be traced back to 1580, when the notable Jesuit Peter Canisius founded the Collège Saint-Michel in the City of Fribourg ...

and in 1989/90 a visiting professor at the University of Pennsylvania. In 1970 he was an invited speaker at the

International Congress of Mathematicians The International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM) is the largest conference for the topic of mathematics. It meets once every four years, hosted by the International Mathematical Union (IMU). The Fields Medals, the IMU Abacus Medal (known before ...

Nice Nice ( ; ) is a city in and the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes department in France. The Nice agglomeration extends far beyond the administrative city limits, with a population of nearly one million homological algebra Homological algebra is the branch of mathematics that studies homology (mathematics), homology in a general algebraic setting. It is a relatively young discipline, whose origins can be traced to investigations in combinatorial topology (a precurs ...

, but his principal research area for a number of years has been

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

. He is well known to theoretical computer scientists for his book ''Category Theory for Computing Science'' (1990) with Charles Wells, as well as for the development of *-autonomous categories and Chu spaces which have found various applications in computer science. His monograph ''*-autonomous categories'' (1979), and his books ''Toposes, Triples, and Theories'' (1985), also coauthored with Wells, and ''Acyclic Models'' (2002), are aimed at more specialized audiences. In 2011 Michael Barr and his wife Marcia published an English translation of

Grothendieck Alexander Grothendieck, later Alexandre Grothendieck in French (; ; ; 28 March 1928 – 13 November 2014), was a German-born French mathematician who became the leading figure in the creation of modern algebraic geometry. His research ext ...

's fundamental ''Tôhoku'' paper. Barr is on the editorial boards of ''Mathematical Structures in Computer Science'' and the electronic journal ''

Homology, Homotopy and Applications ''Homology, Homotopy and Applications'' is a peer-reviewed delayed open access mathematics journal published by International Press. It was established in 1999 and covers research on algebraic topology. The journal "Homology, Homotopy and Applic ...

'', and is editor of the electronic journal ''Theory and Applications of Categories''.

References

External links

''Toposes, Triples and Theories''
updated edition of text first published in 1985.
''Category Theory for Computing Science''
updated 3rd edition of the book.
Some aspects of homological Algebra
translation of Grothendieck's ''Tôhoku'' paper * http://www.tac.mta.ca/tac (Theory and Applications of Categories) * https://web.archive.org/web/20080704125156/http://www.math.rutgers.edu/hha/geninfo.html (Homology, Homotopy and Applications) * 1937 births Living people Mathematicians from Philadelphia Central High School (Philadelphia) alumni University of Pennsylvania School of Arts and Sciences alumni Academic staff of McGill University Canadian mathematicians Canadian computer scientists Anglophone Quebec people Category theorists {{Canada-compu-bio-stub