Subject: Re: Postnikov obituary
Date: Mon, 19 Jul 2004 14:47:05 +0100 (BST)
From: Taras Panov <tpanov@maths.man.ac.uk>
To: Don Davis <dmd1@lehigh.edu>

Dear all,

There is one mistake in otherwise very comprehensive Postnikov obituary
written by Yuli Rudyak. Namely, Mikhail Mikhailovich Postnikov died on
Thursday, 27 May 2004. Let me just add that we have a memorial page at
http://higeom.math.msu.su/people/postnikov
It is in Russian, but we are going to prepare an English translation soon.

Dr. Taras Panov
Department of Geometry and Topology
Faculty of Mathematics and Mechanics
Moscow State University
Leninskie Gory
119992 Moscow RUSSIA
tel/fax: +7 095 9393798
email: tpanov@mech.math.msu.su
url: http://higeom.math.msu.su/people/taras

On Mon, 19 Jul 2004, Don Davis wrote:

> Subject: Re: Postnikov
> Date: Fri, 16 Jul 2004 12:52:13 -0400 (EDT)
> From: Yuli Rudyak <rudyak@math.ufl.edu>
>
> My PhD supervisor and outstanding topologist Mikhail Mikhailovich
> Postnikov died
> June 26 this year. He was born  October 27, 1927, and he worked as a
> researcher in Steklov Institute until last day of his life.
>
> The main topological achievement of Postnikov is the complete
> homotopy classification of finite $CW$ spaces and maps between such
> spaces. Namely, he proved that, in a sense, every space can be
> decomposed (up to
> homotopy) in a twisted product of Eilenberg--Mac Lane spaces, and he
> introduced
> the invariants (called later Postnikov invariants) that describe the
> above
> mentioned twisting. Now, the homotopy type of a finite $CW$-space is
> completely
> determined by its homotopy groups and Postnikov invariants.
> He did it in 1951, and up to now the Postnikov tower is one of favorite
> tools of
> algebraic topologists.
>
> Mikhail Postnikov was a good supervisor, and he was very active as
> the supervisor: Almost all Russian algebraic topologists were his
> students, or students of his students, or students of students of
> his students.
>
> Students were delighted with his lectures, colleagues admired with his
> wide
> mathematical knowledge. He liked to travel, to play chess and bridge. He
> enjoyed
> many other things in life. Many people will miss him.
>
> Dr. Yuli B. Rudyak
> Department of Mathematics
> University of Florida
> 358 Little Hall
> PO Box 118105
> Gainesville, FL 32611-8105
> USA
> TEL: (+1) 352-392-0281 ext. 319(office)
> TEL: (+1) 352-381-8497(home)
> FAX: (+1) 352-392-8357
> URL: http://www.math.ufl.edu/~rudyak/
>
>