Logic List Mailing Archive

Saunders Mac Lane (1909-2005)

Saunders Mac Lane

Born: 4 Aug 1909 in Taftville, Connecticut, USA
Died: 14 April 2005 in San Francisco, California, USA

The MAA reports that Saunders MacLane died April 14, 2005 at the age of 
95. MacLane earned his doctorate under Weyl and Bernays at Goettingen and 
spent most of a long and distinguished career at the University of 
Chicago.

Mac Lane's work covered a wide range of mathematics. He worked on and off 
throughout his career on mathematical logic, no surprise for a student of 
Bernays, and he did some early work on planar graphs. He studied 
valuations and their extensions to polynomial rings. In the 1940s he 
worked on cohomology and introduced the basic notions of category theory.

Kelly, in [4], writes:-

     No man could so stimulate others unless, alongside an incisive 
intellect, he was possessed of enthusiasm and warmth, a deep interest in 
his fellow man, and a sympathy the more real for being unsentimental. 
Those who proudly call themselves his friends know these things: others 
will infer them in reading [his works].