American mathematician (1939–2020)
James Edward Humphreys (December 10, 1939 – August 27, 2020) was an American mathematician who worked in algebraic groups, Lie groups, and Lie algebras and applications of these mathematical structures. He is known as the author of several mathematical texts, such as "Introduction to Lie Algebras and Representation Theory" and "Reflection Groups and Coxeter Groups".
After contracting COVID-19 weeks earlier during the COVID-19 pandemic in Massachusetts, Humphreys died on August 27, 2020, at the age of 80.
Education.
Humphreys attended elementary and secondary school in Erie, Pennsylvania and then studied at Oberlin College (bachelor's degree 1961) and from 1961 philosophy and mathematics at Cornell University. At Yale University he earned his master's degree in 1964 and his PhD in 1966 under George Seligman with thesis "Algebraic Lie Algebras over fields of prime characteristic".
Career.
In 1966, he became an assistant professor at the University of Oregon and in 1970, an associate professor at New York University. At the University of Massachusetts Amherst he became in 1974 an associate professor and in 1976 a full professor; he retired there in 2003 as professor emeritus. In 1968/69 and in 1977, he was a visiting scholar at the Institute for Advanced Study and in 1969/70 at the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences of New York University. In 1985, he was a visiting professor at Rutgers University.
Awards.
Humphreys received the Lester R. Ford Award for the publication "Representations of formula_2" in 1976.
References.
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