William “Bill” Browder, an emeritus professor of mathematics, died in early February at the age of 91
2 thoughts on “William “Bill” Browder”
gerald porter
Before returning to Princeton, Browder had three PhD students at Cornell. I was his first student in 1963, followed by Paul Green and Yuen-Fat Wong in 1964. Bill was a superb advisor.
I don’t know if I had ever met him before 2018, but certainly fellow students and colleagues who’d attended grad school at Princeton many decades earlier had related their fond experiences of him; of course his reputation as an Annals editor, and the great topologist from a family of great mathematicians, is legendary. What I do know is this: before giving a talk at Princeton in October 2018, I arrived a bit early to the seminar room where stragglers from a previous seminar were chatting, a few of whom I knew pretty well and said hello to; within seconds, the host of that previous seminar introduced himself with a warm, welcoming smile: Bill Browder!
Before returning to Princeton, Browder had three PhD students at Cornell. I was his first student in 1963, followed by Paul Green and Yuen-Fat Wong in 1964. Bill was a superb advisor.
I don’t know if I had ever met him before 2018, but certainly fellow students and colleagues who’d attended grad school at Princeton many decades earlier had related their fond experiences of him; of course his reputation as an Annals editor, and the great topologist from a family of great mathematicians, is legendary. What I do know is this: before giving a talk at Princeton in October 2018, I arrived a bit early to the seminar room where stragglers from a previous seminar were chatting, a few of whom I knew pretty well and said hello to; within seconds, the host of that previous seminar introduced himself with a warm, welcoming smile: Bill Browder!