William Thurston
1946–2012, Washington, D.C., United States, Rochester, New York, United States
GeometryTopologyAlgebra
American mathematician who revolutionized the study of three-dimensional manifolds through geometric structures and the geometrization program.
William Thurston developed a vision in which three-dimensional manifolds are assembled from canonical geometric pieces. His geometrization program unified hyperbolic geometry, topology, and group theory and became a foundation for Perelman's later proof of the geometrization and Poincare conjectures. Thurston received the 1982 Fields Medal.
Workplaces: Princeton University, University of California, Berkeley
United States