Saunders mclane autobiography

Saunders Mac Lane has been my teacher, mentor, and model almost from the beginning of my mathematical life.
Biography.
Saunders Mac Lane (August 4, 1909 – April 14, 2005), born Leslie Saunders MacLane, was an American mathematician who co-founded category theory with Samuel.

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Saunders Mac Lane

American mathematician (1909–2005)

Saunders Mac Lane (August 4, 1909 – April 14, 2005), born Leslie Saunders MacLane, was an American mathematician who co-founded category theory with Samuel Eilenberg.

Early life and education

Mac Lane was born in Norwich, Connecticut, near where his family lived in Taftville.^[4] He was christened "Leslie Saunders MacLane", but "Leslie" fell into disuse because his parents, Donald MacLane and Winifred Saunders, came to dislike it. He began inserting a space into his surname because his first wife found it difficult to type the name without a space.^[5] He was the eldest of three brothers; one of his brothers, Gerald MacLane, also became a mathematics professor at Rice University and Purdue University. Another sister died as a baby. His father and grandfather were both ministers; his grandfather had been a Presbyterian, but was kicked out of the church for believing in evolution, and his father was a Congregationalist. His mother, Winifred, studied at Mount Holyoke College and taught English,

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Celebratio Mathematica

The McLean clan came from the Highlands of Scotland, near Castle Duart overlooking the Straits of Mull. The clan was defeated by the British in 1746 in the Battle of Culloden (the last pitched battle fought on British soil), and eventually Saunders’ ancestors came to western Pennsylvania and Ohio in the early 1800s. Saunders’ grandfather, William Ward McLane, born in 1846, became a Presbyterian minister, and then was charged with heresy due to preaching about Charles Darwin. He escaped to New Haven, Connecticut, and became pastor of a Presbyterian church.

Saunders’ father, Donald McLane, born 1882, studied at Yale and the Union Theological Seminary in New York, and became a Congregationalist minister. He married Winifred Sa

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Saunders Mac Lane's books

1. Homology (1963), by Saunders Mac Lane.

1.1. From the Preface.

In presenting this treatment of homological algebra, it is a pleasure to acknowledge the help and encouragement which I have had from all sides. Homological algebra arose from many sources in algebra and topology. Decisive examples came from the study of group extensions and their factor sets, a subject I learned in joint work with Otto Schilling. A further development of homological ideas, with a view to their topological applications, came in my long collaboration with Samuel Eilenberg; to both collaborators, especial thanks. For many years the Air Force Office of Scientific Research supported my research projects on various subjects now summarized here; it is a pleasure to acknowledge their lively understanding of basic science. Both Reinhold Baer and Josef Schmid read and commented on my entire manuscript; their advice has led to many improvements. ... My wife, Dorothy, has cheerfully typed more versions of more chapters than she would like to count.

1.2. Review by: C Terence