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Hugh Dowker
Times obituary
Distinguished work in topology
Professor Clifford Hugh Dowker, a mathematician of great range and distinction, has died in London.
Born in Ontario in 1912, Dowker took his doctorate in Princeton in 1938 and worked in Canada and the USA (including a period as assistant to John von Neumann at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Princeton, wartime work at the MIT Radiation Laboratory, and visiting lectureships at Princeton and Harvard) until 1951, when he was appointed by the University of London to a readership followed in 1962 by a personal chair at Birkbeck College. He retired in 1979, already gravely ill, but continued to work on his research until only days before his death.
His main field of work was topology; he published sparingly, but his papers were always elegant and carefully thought through. Some of his early work has been very widely quoted and continues to play an important role in point-set topology. More recently, his interests turned to problems in the classification of knots.
His mathematical power, combined with his personal modesty and gentle humor, ensured him the respect and affection of a generation of students and colleagues throughout the world. He also took a keen interest in educational questions and showed particular concern in the education of gifted children.
He leaves a widow, Yael Naim Dowker, until this year Reader in Mathematics at Imperial College, and a daughter, Ann,
Distinguished work in topology
Professor Clifford Hugh Dowker, a mathematician of great range and distinction, has died in London.
Born in Ontario in 1912, Dowker took his doctorate in Princeton in 1938 and worked in Canada and the USA (including a period as assistant to John von Neumann at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Princeton, wartime work at the MIT Radiation Laboratory, and visiting lectureships at Princeton and Harvard) until 1951, when he was appointed by the University of London to a readership followed in 1962 by a personal chair at Birkbeck College. He retired in 1979, already gravely ill, but continued to work on his research until only days before his death.
His main field of work was topology; he published sparingly, but his papers were always elegant and carefully thought through. Some of his early work has been very widely quoted and continues to play an important role in point-set topology. More recently, his interests turned to problems in the classification of knots.
His mathematical power, combined with his personal modesty and gentle humor, ensured him the respect and affection of a generation of students and colleagues throughout the world. He also took a keen interest in educational questions and showed particular concern in the education of gifted children.
He leaves a widow, Yael Naim Dowker, until this year Reader in Mathematics at Imperial College, and a daughter, Ann,
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