Stephen M. Gersten (born 2 December 1940) was an American mathematician, specializing in finitely presented groups and their geometric properties. Gersten graduated in 1961 with an AB from

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 ...

and in 1965 with a PhD from

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by Henry VIII, King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any college at either Cambridge ...

. His doctoral thesis was ''Class Groups of Supplemented Algebras'' written under the supervision of

John R. Stallings John Robert Stallings Jr. (July 22, 1935 – November 24, 2008) was a mathematician known for his seminal contributions to geometric group theory and Low-dimensional topology, 3-manifold topology. Stallings was a Professor Emeritus in the Departme ...

. In the late 1960s and early 1970s he taught at

Rice University William Marsh Rice University (Rice University) is a Private university, private research university in Houston, Houston, Texas. It is on a 300-acre campus near the Houston Museum District and adjacent to the Texas Medical Center. Rice is ranke ...

. In 1972–1973 he was a visiting scholar at the

Institute for Advanced Study The Institute for Advanced Study (IAS), located in Princeton, New Jersey, in the United States, is an independent center for theoretical research and intellectual inquiry. It has served as the academic home of internationally preeminent scholar ...

. In 1973 he became a professor at the

University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the Universit ...

. In 1974 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 Nevanlinna Prize (to be rename ...

in Vancouver. At the

University of Utah The University of Utah (U of U, UofU, or simply The U) is a public research university in Salt Lake City, Utah. It is the flagship institution of the Utah System of Higher Education. The university was established in 1850 as the University of De ...

he became a professor in 1975 and is now semi-retired there. His PhD students include

Roger C. Alperin Roger Charles Alperin (January 8, 1947 – November 21, 2019) was an American mathematician, best known for his work in group theory, including its connections with geometry and topology. He was a professor at the University of Oklahoma and at San ...

and

Edward W. Formanek Edward William Formanek (born May 6, 1942). is an American mathematician and chess player. He is a professor emeritus of mathematics at Pennsylvania State University,.. and a FIDE International Master in chess.

. Gersten's conjecture has motivated considerable research.

Gersten's theorem

If is an automorphism of a finitely generated

free group In mathematics, the free group ''F'S'' over a given set ''S'' consists of all words that can be built from members of ''S'', considering two words to be different unless their equality follows from the group axioms (e.g. ''st'' = ''suu''−1' ...

then is finitely generated.

Selected publications

* * * * * (See

Weierstrass preparation theorem In mathematics, the Weierstrass preparation theorem is a tool for dealing with analytic functions of several complex variables, at a given point ''P''. It states that such a function is, up to multiplication by a function not zero at ''P'', a p ...

.) * (This paper presents a proof of a conjecture made by G. Peter Scott.) * * * * * * *

References

1940 births Living people Group theorists Topologists 20th-century American mathematicians 21st-century American mathematicians Princeton University alumni Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge Rice University faculty University of Utah faculty University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign faculty {{mathematician-stub

Gersten's theorem

Selected publications

See also

References