William "Bus" H. Jaco (born July 14, 1940 in
Grafton, West Virginia
Grafton is a city in and the county seat of Taylor County, West Virginia, United States. The population was 4,729 at the 2020 census. It originally developed as a junction point for the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, serving numerous branches of ...
) is an American
mathematician
A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems.
Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, structure, space, models, and change.
History
O ...
who is known for his role in the
Jaco–Shalen–Johannson decomposition theorem and is currently Regents Professor and Grayce B. Kerr Chair at
Oklahoma State University
Oklahoma (; Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a state in the South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the north, Missouri on the northeast, Arkansas on the east, New M ...
and Executive Director of the Initiative for Mathematics Learning by Inquiry.
Education and career
Jaco received a
B.A
Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...
from the
Fairmont State College and an
M.A.
A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. ...
from
Pennsylvania State University
The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State or PSU) is a Public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related Land-grant university, land-grant research university with campuses and facilities throughout Pennsylvan ...
. 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 ...
in 1968 at the
University of Wisconsin-Madison
A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, the ...
.
He held faculty positions at the University of Michigan and Rice University before joining the faculty at Oklahoma State University as Head of the Mathematics Dept. from 1982–87 and again served as head from 2011–2018. He has been a member of 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 ...
, (IAS) the
Mathematical Sciences Research Institute
The Simons Laufer Mathematical Sciences Institute (SLMath), formerly the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute (MSRI), is an independent nonprofit mathematical research institution on the University of California campus in Berkeley, Califor ...
(MSRI), and the
American Institute of Mathematics (AIM).
He served as the Executive Director of the
American Mathematical Society
The American Mathematical Society (AMS) is an association of professional mathematicians dedicated to the interests of mathematical research and scholarship, and serves the national and international community through its publications, meetings, ...
(AMS), the Chair-elect, Chair, and Retiring Chair of the Mathematics Section of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, as a member of the Advisory Board of the American Institute of Mathematics, as a member of the Board of Mathematical Sciences at the National Research Council/
National Academy of Sciences
The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Natio ...
, as a member of the Joint Policy Board for Mathematics. He was an elected member of the Board of Trustees of the American Mathematical Society serving as the Chair of the Board of Trustees, 2014–2015.
One of his doctoral students (joint with
Karol Borsuk
Karol Borsuk (May 8, 1905 – January 24, 1982) was a Polish mathematician.
His main interest was topology, while he obtained significant results also in functional analysis.
Borsuk introduced the theory of '' absolute retracts'' (ARs) and '' ab ...
) was
Krystyna Kuperberg.
Awards and honors
In 1998 he was elected fellow of the
American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is an American international non-profit organization with the stated goals of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific responsi ...
and in 2012 he became a fellow of the
American Mathematical Society
The American Mathematical Society (AMS) is an association of professional mathematicians dedicated to the interests of mathematical research and scholarship, and serves the national and international community through its publications, meetings, ...
where he is an Honorary Life Member. He is an Honorary Associate Member of the Moscow Mathematical Society and has received Honorary Recognition for Service to St. Petersburg and Russian Mathematics and Mathematicians.
Jaco has held the distinguished positions of Regents Professor (2008) and Grace B. Kerr Professor at
Oklahoma State University
Oklahoma (; Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a state in the South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the north, Missouri on the northeast, Arkansas on the east, New M ...
where he was recognized as the 2017 Eminent Faculty Member and in 2019 recognized as Regents Distinguished Research Faculty member. He has also held the Lois and Fred Gehring Distinguished Visitor Chair at University of Michigan.
To commemorate Jaco's 70th birthday and his career as a mathematician,
Oklahoma State University
Oklahoma (; Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a state in the South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the north, Missouri on the northeast, Arkansas on the east, New M ...
held a conference in topology called Jacofest in June 2010. He was inducted into the Oklahoma Higher Education Hall of Fame in 2019.
Research
His mathematical research is in Geometry and Topology where he studies low-dimensional manifolds, decision problems, algorithms and complexity theory. He is best known for the
Jaco–Shalen–Johannson decomposition Theorem, his work on
normal surface In mathematics, a normal surface is a surface inside a triangulated 3-manifold
In mathematics, a 3-manifold is a space that locally looks like Euclidean 3-dimensional space. A 3-manifold can be thought of as a possible shape of the universe. Just ...
s, and the co-discovery of efficient triangulations.
Publications
*William Jaco ''Lectures on Three-Manifold Topology''
*W. H. Jaco, P. B. Shalen ''Seifert Fibered Spaces in Three Manifolds'': Memoirs Series No. 220 (Memoirs of the American Mathematical Society ; v. 21, no. 220)
*William Jaco,
J. Hyam Rubinstein
Joachim Hyam Rubinstein FAA (born 7 March 1948, in Melbourne) an Australian top mathematician specialising in low-dimensional topology; he is currently serving as an honorary professor in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at the Univ ...
, & Stephan Tillman "Z2 –Thurston Norm and Complexity of 3–Manifolds"
*William Jaco,
J. Hyam Rubinstein
Joachim Hyam Rubinstein FAA (born 7 March 1948, in Melbourne) an Australian top mathematician specialising in low-dimensional topology; he is currently serving as an honorary professor in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at the Univ ...
, & Stephan Tillman "Coverings and Minimal Triangulations of 3–Manifolds"
*William Jaco,
J. Hyam Rubinstein
Joachim Hyam Rubinstein FAA (born 7 March 1948, in Melbourne) an Australian top mathematician specialising in low-dimensional topology; he is currently serving as an honorary professor in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at the Univ ...
, & Stephan Tillman "Minimal triangulations for an infinite family of lens spaces"
*William Jaco,
J. Hyam Rubinstein
Joachim Hyam Rubinstein FAA (born 7 March 1948, in Melbourne) an Australian top mathematician specialising in low-dimensional topology; he is currently serving as an honorary professor in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at the Univ ...
, & Eric Sedgwick "Finding planar surfaces in knot- and link-manifolds"
*William Jaco &
J. Hyam Rubinstein
Joachim Hyam Rubinstein FAA (born 7 March 1948, in Melbourne) an Australian top mathematician specialising in low-dimensional topology; he is currently serving as an honorary professor in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at the Univ ...
"Layered-triangulations of 3-manifolds"
*William Jaco &
J. Hyam Rubinstein
Joachim Hyam Rubinstein FAA (born 7 March 1948, in Melbourne) an Australian top mathematician specialising in low-dimensional topology; he is currently serving as an honorary professor in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at the Univ ...
"0-efficient triangulations of three-manifolds"
*William Jaco & Eric Sedgwick "Decision problems in the space of Dehn fillings"
*William Jaco,
J. Hyam Rubinstein
Joachim Hyam Rubinstein FAA (born 7 March 1948, in Melbourne) an Australian top mathematician specialising in low-dimensional topology; he is currently serving as an honorary professor in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at the Univ ...
, & David Letscher "Algorithms for essential surfaces in 3-manifolds"
References
External links
Oklahoma State Bioof W. Jaco
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jaco, William
1940 births
Living people
20th-century American mathematicians
21st-century American mathematicians
Topologists
University of Wisconsin–Madison alumni
Oklahoma State University faculty
People from Grafton, West Virginia
Fairmont State University alumni
Pennsylvania State University alumni
Educators from West Virginia
Fellows of the American Mathematical Society
People from Stillwater, Oklahoma
Mathematicians from West Virginia