33. Raymond Louis Wilder (1896-1982)

President 1955-1956

Wilder's Master's degree was in actuarial mathematics, but he became a leader in the development of the field of topology in the U.S.: He synthesized set-theoretic topology and algebraic topology. He spent a large part of his academic career at the University of Michigan (1936-1967), and then became a research associate at the University of California, Santa Barbara. In later years he became interested in the history of mathematics, which led him to publish studies using anthropological ideas: Evolution of Mathematical Concepts (1968) and Mathematics as a Cultural System (1981). Wilder was a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences.

• History of the Second Fifty Years: American Mathematical Society, 1939-1988, by Everett Pitcher (AMS, 1988), which includes AMS Presidents from 1939-1988 (and reports on all aspects of the Society during the period)
• Mathematics Genealogy Project
• "Raymond Louis Wilder," by Brad Dybing, eMuseum, Minnesota State University, Mankato
• Raymond Louis Wilder Papers, 1914-1982, the Center for American History, University of Texas at Austin
• "Raymond Louis Wilder. November 3, 1896?July 7, 1982," by Frank Raymond, Biographical Memoirs, National Academy of Sciences