Person: Halsted, George Bruce
George Halsted was an American mathematician who explored foundations of geometry and introduced non-Euclidean geometry into the United States. He was interested in mathematical education and in the history of mathematics.
Mathematical Profile (Excerpt):
- It was natural that George would follow this tradition and indeed he too become a student at Princeton University.
- Halsted was given outstanding references by Sylvester to present to Borchardt.
- Returning to the United States, Halsted was appointed a tutor at Princeton, a post he held between 1879 and 1881, then from 1881 he was an instructor in postgraduate mathematics at Princeton, continuing until 1884.
- The University of Texas at Austin opened in 1883, and Halsted was appointed to the Department of Pure and Applied Mathematics there in only the second year of operation of the University.
- L E Dickson was an undergraduate and worked for his M.S. (awarded in 1894) under Halsted's supervision.
- Robert Moore entered the University of Texas in 1898 and there he took courses by Halsted who turned him into an enthusiast for mathematical research, even in his undergraduate course.
- Halsted gave commentaries on the work of Lobachevsky, Bolyai, Saccheri and Poincaré and made translations of their works into English.
- Halsted was always outspoken, even in situations where it was clear that what he said would land him in trouble.
- However when it comes to criticising university administrations one should be more careful - Halsted was not.
- One might have thought that his experience at Texas would have made Halsted a bit more careful of his actions but this seems not to be so.
- These sorts of things were a way of life in certain establishments and people did not take kindly to an outspoken person like Halsted criticising them.
- Again Halsted was not prepared to turn a blind eye to things he thought were wrong and again he was very outspoken, What did he find to attack this time?
Born 23 November 1853, Newark, New Jersey, USA. Died 16 March 1922, New York, USA.
View full biography at MacTutor
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Origin Usa
Thank you to the contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0! 
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- non-Github:
- @J-J-O'Connor
- @E-F-Robertson
References
Adapted from other CC BY-SA 4.0 Sources:
- O’Connor, John J; Robertson, Edmund F: MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive
