Robert Evert Stong (August 23, 1936,

Oklahoma City Oklahoma City (), officially the City of Oklahoma City, and often shortened to OKC, is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. The county seat of Oklahoma County, it ranks 20th among United States cities in population, a ...

– April 10, 2008,

Charlottesville, Virginia Charlottesville, colloquially known as C'ville, is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia. It is the county seat of Albemarle County, which surrounds the city, though the two are separate legal entities. It is named after Queen Ch ...

) was a mathematician at 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 ...

who proved the

Hattori–Stong theorem In algebraic topology, the Hattori–Stong theorem, proved by and , gives an isomorphism between the stable homotopy of a Thom spectrum and the primitive elements of its K-homology In mathematics, K-homology is a homology theory on the category ...

Early life and education

Stong received a B.A. and M.A. in mathematics at the

University of Oklahoma The University of Oklahoma (OU) is a Public university, public research university in Norman, Oklahoma. Founded in 1890, it had existed in Oklahoma Territory near Indian Territory for 17 years before the two Territories became the state of Oklahom ...

. He received a Ph.D. in mathematics 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 ...

in 1962. His Ph.D. dissertation, ''Some relations among characteristic classes and numbers'', was written under the supervision of

Richard Lashof Richard K. Lashof (November 9, 1922 – February 4, 2010) was an American mathematician. He contributed to the field of Geometric topology, geometric and differential topology, working with Shiing-Shen Chern, Stephen Smale, among others. Lashof is ...

. He served on active duty with the

United States Army Reserve The United States Army Reserve (USAR) is a Military reserve force, reserve force of the United States Army. Together, the Army Reserve and the Army National Guard constitute the Army element of the reserve components of the United States Armed F ...

s from 1962 to 1965 and was stationed at Fort Benjamin Harrison and

the Pentagon The Pentagon is the headquarters building of the United States Department of Defense. It was constructed on an accelerated schedule during World War II. As a symbol of the U.S. military, the phrase ''The Pentagon'' is often used as a metony ...

. He worked on computer development and rose to the rank of captain.

Career

After serving with the Army, he went to the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

as a post-doctoral fellow (1964–66), and then to

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...

as faculty (1966–68). In 1968 he became Professor of Mathematics at the University of Virginia, where he taught until his retirement in 2007. His doctoral students included

Nelson Saiers Nelson Saiers is an American mathematical artist and former hedge fund manager. Before 2014, he worked in finance as a Managing Director at Deutsche Bank AG and as the Chief Investment Officer at Saiers Capital, LLC (formerly Alphabet Management, ...

Selected publications

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References

Sources

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Stong, Robert Evert 1936 births 2008 deaths People from Oklahoma City University of Virginia faculty 20th-century American mathematicians 21st-century American mathematicians Topologists University of Chicago alumni University of Oklahoma alumni Princeton University faculty Academics of the University of Oxford United States Army officers Mathematicians from Oklahoma