Hing Tong

Hing Tong (16 February 1922 – 4 March 2007) was a leading American mathematician. He is well known for providing the original proof of the Katetov–Tong insertion theorem.

Hing Tong

Life

Hing Tong was born in Canton, China. He received his bachelor's degree from the University of Pennsylvania. In 1947, he received his doctorate in mathematics from Columbia University, where his thesis advisor was Edgar Lorch.[1] In 1956, he married fellow mathematician, Mary Powderly. He was the father of five children.

Work

Hing Tong made many significant contributions to the area of algebraic topology, and served in a number of academic capacities. In 1947, after receiving a National Research Council fellowship,[2] he became an assistant professor at Barnard College (Columbia University).[3] In 1955, he was a visiting scholar at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. Also in 1955, he was appointed professor of mathematics (and eventually chairman of the mathematics department) at Wesleyan University. He later became a professor of mathematics at Fordham University, where he also served as chairman of the department. He was listed among the Outstanding Educators of America in 1973. Tong retired from academia in 1984 to concentrate on research in theoretical physics. A commemorative brick in the Paul Halmos Commemorative Walk at the Carriage House Conference Center of the Mathematical Association of America (MAA) in Washington, DC, reads: "Hing Tong, Topology and Physics".

Important publications

Notes
  1. The Mathematics Genealogy Project
  2. Bull. Amer. Math. Soc. 53 (1947), 896-904.
  3. Bull. Amer. Math. Soc. 54 (1948), 869-884.
  4. Scientific Commons
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