R.L. Moore

R. L. Moore: Mathematician and Teacher presents a full and frank biography of a mathematician recognized as one of the principal figures in the 20th Century progression of the American school of point set topology. He was equally well known as creator of the Moore Method (no textbooks, no lectures, no conferring) in which there is a current and growing revival of interest and modified application under inquiry-based learning projects in both the United States and the United Kingdom.

Parker draws on oral history, with first-person recollections from many leading figures in the American mathematics community of the last half-century. The story embraces some of the most famous and influential mathematical names in America and Europe from the late 1900s in what is undoubtedly a lively account of this controversial figure, once described as Mr. Chips with Attitude. He was the first American to become a Visiting Lecturer for the American Mathematical Society, was a member of the National Academy of Sciences, published 68 papers and a book that is still referred to seventy years later and that has been the subject of literally hundreds of papers by other mathematicians around the globe. Three of Moore's students followed him as president of the American Mathematical Society, and three others became vice-presidents. Five served as president of the Mathematical Association of America, and three became members of the National Academy of Sciences.