The Collected Papers of R.h. Bing

Book excerpt: A powerful mathematician and a great problem solver, R. H. Bing laid the foundation for a number of areas of topology. Many of his papers have continued to serve as a source of major theoretical developments and concrete applications in recent years. One outstanding example was Michael H. Freedman's use of Bing's Shrinking Criterion to solve the four-dimensional Poincaré Conjecture. This two-volume set brings together over one hundred of Bing's research, expository, andmiscellaneous papers. These works range over a great variety of topics in topology, including the topology of manifolds, decomposition spaces, continua, metrization, general topology, and geometric topology. In addition, there are a number of papers in the areas of convex functions, linearity, and conformalvarieties. The introductory section in the first volume provides historical background on Bing's life and achievements. This collection will appeal to mathematicians in all areas, and especially those in topology, as well as students, historians, and educators in the mathematical sciences, for it provides a complete historical summary of the mathematical events in the life of the man and the mathematician, R. H. Bing.