Albrecht Dold, R.i.P.

Albrecht Dold, R.i.P.

[Fred E.J. Linton]

From today's IMU newsletter:

| 6. DEATH OF ALBRECHT DOLD ON 26-09-2011.
|
| Albrecht Dold, known for fundamental contributions to algebraic
| topology, was born in Germany in 1928. He held positions in Heidelberg,
| Zürich, Princeton and Columbia. He has been Vice-president of IMU in
1995-98.

I particularly mourn his passing, as it was Dold's algebraic topology 
lectures at Columbia around 1961 (+/- 1) that taught me virtually all 
I know, or would ever learn later, about the Yoneda Lemma.

Born August 5, 1928, in Triberg, Germany, and barely a teenager during 
WW II, Dold would have been 83 at the time of his death.

-- Fred



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Albrecht Dold, R.i.P.

[Andreas Blass]

Albrecht Dold taught the algebraic topology course that I took in my first year as a graduate student.  His beautifully organized presentation of this material was largely responsible for my becoming interested in category theory.  He made both the power and the beauty of functors evident.

Andreas Blass

Begin forwarded message:

> From: "Fred E.J. Linton" <fejlinton@usa.net>
> Date: 6 October, 2011 9:13:26 PM EDT
> To: "categories" <categories@mta.ca>
> Subject: categories: Albrecht Dold, R.i.P.
> Reply-To: "Fred E.J. Linton" <fejlinton@usa.net>
> 
> From today's IMU newsletter:
> 
> | 6. DEATH OF ALBRECHT DOLD ON 26-09-2011.
> |
> | Albrecht Dold, known for fundamental contributions to algebraic
> | topology, was born in Germany in 1928. He held positions in Heidelberg,
> | Zürich, Princeton and Columbia. He has been Vice-president of IMU in
> 1995-98.
> 
> I particularly mourn his passing, as it was Dold's algebraic topology 
> lectures at Columbia around 1961 (+/- 1) that taught me virtually all 
> I know, or would ever learn later, about the Yoneda Lemma.
> 
> Born August 5, 1928, in Triberg, Germany, and barely a teenager during 
> WW II, Dold would have been 83 at the time of his death.
> 
> -- Fred



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Re: Albrecht Dold, R.i.P.

[Ronnie Brown]

Two major things I learned from Albrecht Dold. One was the Dod-Kan 
theorem, on the equivalence between chain complexes and simplicial 
abelian groups, which was a major input to my doctoral thesis on the 
finding k-invariants  of function spaces; and second,  when in the 1960s 
he was lecturing at Liverpool on half-exact functors, I realised that 
for publication purposes on this material,  I could cut out long and  
detailed formulae for a homotopy equivalence making a diagram 
commutative, since its existence followed from naturality!

Both of these aspects have continued to influence my work on crossed 
complexes and nonabelian algebraic topology.

Ronnie

On 07/10/2011 14:15, Andreas Blass wrote:
> Albrecht Dold taught the algebraic topology course that I took in my first year as a graduate student.  His beautifully organized presentation of this material was largely responsible for my becoming interested in category theory.  He made both the power and the beauty of functors evident.
>
> Andreas Blass
>
> Begin forwarded message:
>
>> From: "Fred E.J. Linton"<fejlinton@usa.net>
>> Date: 6 October, 2011 9:13:26 PM EDT
>> To: "categories"<categories@mta.ca>
>> Subject: categories: Albrecht Dold, R.i.P.
>> Reply-To: "Fred E.J. Linton"<fejlinton@usa.net>
>>
>>  From today's IMU newsletter:
>>
>> | 6. DEATH OF ALBRECHT DOLD ON 26-09-2011.
>> |
>> | Albrecht Dold, known for fundamental contributions to algebraic
>> | topology, was born in Germany in 1928. He held positions in Heidelberg,
>> | Zürich, Princeton and Columbia. He has been Vice-president of IMU in
>> 1995-98.
>>
>> I particularly mourn his passing, as it was Dold's algebraic topology
>> lectures at Columbia around 1961 (+/- 1) that taught me virtually all
>> I know, or would ever learn later, about the Yoneda Lemma.
>>
>> Born August 5, 1928, in Triberg, Germany, and barely a teenager during
>> WW II, Dold would have been 83 at the time of his death.
>>
>> -- Fred

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RE : categories: Albrecht Dold, R.i.P.

[Joyal, André]

I have meet Dold only a couple of times.
He always made a big impression on me.

I remember very well his talk at the conference in honour of Samy Eilenberg in 1984.
He spoke on a categorical formulation of Lefschetz fixed points theorem using S-duality and trace.
It was a very beautiful mixture of category theory and topology. 
He received a standing ovation for his talk!

He is one of my mathematical heros.


AJ




-------- Message d'origine--------
De: Andreas Blass [mailto:ablass@umich.edu]
Date: ven. 07/10/2011 09:15
À: categories@mta.ca
Objet : categories: Albrecht Dold, R.i.P.
 
Albrecht Dold taught the algebraic topology course that I took in my first year as a graduate student.  His beautifully organized presentation of this material was largely responsible for my becoming interested in category theory.  He made both the power and the beauty of functors evident.

Andreas Blass

Begin forwarded message:

> From: "Fred E.J. Linton" <fejlinton@usa.net>
> Date: 6 October, 2011 9:13:26 PM EDT
> To: "categories" <categories@mta.ca>
> Subject: categories: Albrecht Dold, R.i.P.
> Reply-To: "Fred E.J. Linton" <fejlinton@usa.net>
> 
> From today's IMU newsletter:
> 
> | 6. DEATH OF ALBRECHT DOLD ON 26-09-2011.
> |
> | Albrecht Dold, known for fundamental contributions to algebraic
> | topology, was born in Germany in 1928. He held positions in Heidelberg,
> | Zürich, Princeton and Columbia. He has been Vice-president of IMU in
> 1995-98.
> 
> I particularly mourn his passing, as it was Dold's algebraic topology 
> lectures at Columbia around 1961 (+/- 1) that taught me virtually all 
> I know, or would ever learn later, about the Yoneda Lemma.
> 
> Born August 5, 1928, in Triberg, Germany, and barely a teenager during 
> WW II, Dold would have been 83 at the time of his death.
> 
> -- Fred


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RE : categories: Albrecht Dold, R.i.P.

[Tierney, Myles]

Dold gave two courses in algebraic topology while I was a graduate student
at Columbia, 1961-62 I think. They were really beautiful. Apart from Sammy's course
on homological algebra, they were the only lectures I learned something from, I still
have the notes. Albrecht Dold was a wonderful mathematician, and a very decent person.
I think we will all miss him.

Myles Tierney


-----Original Message-----
From: Joyal, André [mailto:joyal.andre@uqam.ca]
Sent: Fri 10/7/2011 6:18 PM
To: Andreas Blass; categories@mta.ca
Subject: categories: RE : categories: Albrecht Dold, R.i.P.
 
I have meet Dold only a couple of times.
He always made a big impression on me.

I remember very well his talk at the conference in honour of Samy Eilenberg in 1984.
He spoke on a categorical formulation of Lefschetz fixed points theorem using S-duality and trace.
It was a very beautiful mixture of category theory and topology. 
He received a standing ovation for his talk!

He is one of my mathematical heros.


AJ


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Re: Albrecht Dold, R.i.P.

[Ross Street]

One of the first papers Max Kelly told me to read when I started
graduate work was
Albrecht Dold, "Zur Homotopietheorie der Kettenkomplexe"
Math. Ann. 140 1960 278–298.
When I returned with a complete translation into English, Max
was very critical. He said that was not the way to read a paper
in another language. Eventually I met Dold several times.

At the invitation of Murray Adelman, Dold visited Macquarie.
At the same time, Steve Schanuel was visiting me. This was
an exciting time since the two visitors recognized that Dold's
work on trace was relevant to Schanuel's work on Euler
characteristic. The two charismatic guests were a delight to
be around. They generated so much excitement about the
mathematics.

Albrecht Dold was a genuine European gentleman and I will
remember him as looking much younger and energetic than
his years.

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Albrecht Dold R.I.P.

[F William Lawvere]

The depth of content and clarity of presentation that we saw in 
Albrecht Dold's 1960 Columbia course had a lasting impact on 
several, including me. I well remember the generosity he showed me
in Heidelberg 1965. Myles Tierney and I will not forget 
that it was in the house of Albrecht and Yvonne in 1969
that we agreed to collaborate on the elementary theory of toposes.

There are so  many things that I still hoped to ask him.....

Bill






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