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 and in 1965 with a PhD from Trinity College, 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. In 1972–1973 he was a visiting scholar at the Institute for Advanced Study. In 1973 he became a professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign. 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 he became a professor in 1975 and is now semi-retired there. His PhD students include Roger C. Alperin and Edward W. Formanek. Gersten's conjecture has motivated considerable research.

Gersten's theorem

If is an automorphism of a finitely generated free group 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 Godfrey Peter Scott, known as Peter Scott, (born 1944) is a British mathematician, known for the Scott core theorem. Scott received his PhD in 1969 from the University of Warwick under Brian Joseph Sanderson. Scott was a professor at the Univers ...

.) * * * * * * *

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