Stephen SMALE

born July 15, 1930, Flint, Michigan
University of California, Berkeley

Worked in differential topology where he proved the generalized Poincaré conjecture in dimension n>=5: Every closed, n-dimensional manifold homotopy-equivalent to the n-dimensional sphere is homeomorphic to it. Introduced the method of handle-bodies to solve this and related problems.

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This document has been reproduced from

Albers, Donald J.; Alexanderson, G. L.; Reid, Constance:
International mathematical congresses. An illustrated history 1893 - 1986
Rev. ed. including ICM 1986. Springer-Verlag, New York, 1986

with friendly permission from Springer Verlag