William Francis Pohl (16 September 1937 – 9 December 1988) was an American mathematician, specializing in differential geometry and known for the

Clifton–Pohl torus In geometry, the Clifton–Pohl torus is an example of a compact Lorentzian manifold that is not geodesically complete. While every compact Riemannian manifold is also geodesically complete (by the Hopf–Rinow theorem), this space shows that the ...

. Pohl received 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 ...

his B.A in 1957 and his M.A.1958. He completed his

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...

at Berkeley in 1961 under the direction of

Shiing-Shen Chern Shiing-Shen Chern (; , ; October 28, 1911 – December 3, 2004) was a Chinese-American mathematician and poet. He made fundamental contributions to differential geometry and topology. He has been called the "father of modern differential geome ...

with dissertation ''Differential Geometry of Higher Order''. His dissertation was published in 1962 in the journal ''

Topology In mathematics, topology (from the Greek language, Greek words , and ) is concerned with the properties of a mathematical object, geometric object that are preserved under Continuous function, continuous Deformation theory, deformations, such ...

'' and has received over 120 citations in the mathematical literature. He was a member of the mathematics faculty at the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Tw ...

from September 1964 until his untimely death. Pohl engaged in a famous controversy arguing against

Francis Crick Francis Harry Compton Crick (8 June 1916 – 28 July 2004) was an English molecular biologist, biophysicist, and neuroscientist. He, James Watson, Rosalind Franklin, and Maurice Wilkins played crucial roles in deciphering the helical struc ...

but, in view of additional empirical evidence, conceded about 1979 or 1980 that Crick was correct. Pohl sang liturgical music in Catholic religious services and wrote an article in 1966 from which the journal ''Sacred Music'' published an excerpt in 2011. William Pohl later married Hildegard Bastian (now Hildegard Pohl), and fathered 5 children, Annetta Pohl, Agatha Pohl, Agnes Pohl, Lawrence Pohl, and John Pohl.

Selected publications

* * * * with T. F. Banchoff: * with John Alvord Little: * with Nicolaas H. Kuiper: *

References

20th-century American mathematicians Differential geometers Topologists University of Chicago alumni University of California, Berkeley alumni University of Minnesota faculty 1937 births 1988 deaths {{US-mathematician-stub