J. H. C. Whitehead

John Henry Constantine Whitehead (11 November 1904–8 May 1960), known as Henry, was a British mathematician and was one of the founders of homotopy theory. He was born in Chennai (then known as Madras), in India, and died in Princeton, New Jersey, in 1960. J. H. C. (Henry) Whitehead was the son of the Right Rev. Henry Whitehead, Bishop of Madras and brother of A. N. Whitehead, and of Isobel Duncan, who had herself studied mathematics at Oxford. H... more

John Henry Constantine Whitehead (11 November 1904–8 May 1960), known as Henry, was a British mathematician and was one of the founders of homotopy theory. He was born in Chennai (then known as Madras), in India, and died in Princeton, New Jersey, in 1960. J. H. C. (Henry) Whitehead was the son of the Right Rev. Henry Whitehead, Bishop of Madras and brother of A. N. Whitehead, and of Isobel Duncan, who had herself studied mathematics at Oxford. He was brought up in Oxford, went to Eton and read mathematics at Balliol College, Oxford. After a year working as a stockbroker, he started a Ph.D. in 1929 at Princeton University. His thesis, titled The representation of projective spaces, was written under the direction of Oswald Veblen in 1930. While in Princeton, he also worked with Solomon Lefschetz. He became a fellow of Balliol in 1933. In 1934 he married the concert pianist Barbara Smyth, great-great-granddaughter of Elizabeth Fry and a cousin of Peter Pears; they had two sons. During... less