Our dear friend and colleague, Jerry Levine, died on April 8, after a long and hard fought battle with lymphatic cancer. Jerry was 68 years old.
Jerry had a profound influence on the subject of topology, and most particularly on the subject of knot theory. He received his Ph.D. under the direction of Norman Steenrod at Princeton University, in 1962, and began his career as an instructor at MIT. There Jerry began his long stream of results in higher dimensional knot theory that profoundly redefined the subject. Jerry's early results in knot theory were among the first and most significant applications of the new tool of surgery theory which dominated geometric topology during the 1960s and 1970s. After a short period as an Associate Professor at the University of California, Berkeley, Jerry moved to Brandeis University, returning to Boston, the town he loved, where he had met Sandy, his wife, many years previously. Jerry's influence and contributions continued throughout his career, with his latest publications still to appear in 2006.
Jerry's love of mathematics was exceeded only by his gentleness, his patience, and his concern for others, as displayed through his always generous support for mathematicians early in their career.
Memorials from friends and mathematicians