Mathematicians
Wolfgang Haken
VOLF-gahng HAH-kn (surname not "HAY-ken")
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German-American topologist, born Wolfgang Rudolf Gunther Haken, known for work on three dimensional manifolds including an algorithm deciding whether a knot diagram represents the unknot, and for proving the four color theorem in 1976 with Kenneth Appel at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, the first major theorem proved with essential computer assistance. He worked as an electrical engineer at Siemens in Munich before joining Illinois, where he taught from 1965 until his retirement in 1998. He died in 2022.
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Death PlaceChampaign, Illinois, United States 2 Nationality / CultureGerman, later American citizen (naturalized 1976) 1 Defining ContributionWith Kenneth Appel, proved the four color theorem in 1976 with essential computer assistance. Also solved the unknot problem, producing an algorithm to decide whether a knot diagram represents the unknot, and developed normal surface theory for three dimensional manifolds. 1 Notable WorkTheorie der Normalflachen (Acta Mathematica, 1961); the four color theorem papers (1976-1977, with Kenneth Appel) 1 AwardFulkerson Prize, American Mathematical Society, 1979 (shared with Kenneth Appel) 1 Cross-Tradition Connections
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