G. Peter Scott

Godfrey Peter Scott, known as Peter Scott, (1944 – 19 September 2023) was a British-American mathematician, known for the Scott core theorem.

Education and career He was born in England to Bernard Scott (a mathematician) and Barbara Scott (a poet and sculptor). After attending St Paul's School, London and completing his BA at the University of Oxford, Scott held appointments at the University of Liverpool from 1968 to 1987, at which time he moved to the University of Michigan, where he was a professor until his retirement in 2018. He had previously proved that, given a fundamental group of a 3-manifold, if is finitely generated then must be finitely presented.

Awards and honours In 1986, he was awarded the Senior Berwick Prize by the London Mathematical Society.

Death Scott died of cancer on 19 September 2023.

Selected publications Compact submanifolds of 3-manifolds, Journal of the London Mathematical Society. Second Series vol. 7 (1973), no. 2, 246–250 (proof of the theorem on the compact core) Finitely generated 3-manifold groups are finitely presented. J. London Math. Soc. Second Series vol. 6 (1973), 437–440 Subgroups of surface groups are almost geometric. J. London Math. Soc. Second Series vol. 17 (1978), no. 3, 555–565. (proof that surface groups are LERF) Correction to "Subgroups of surface groups are almost geometric J. London Math. Soc. vol. 2 (1985), no. 2, 217–220 There are no fake Seifert fibre spaces with infinite π1. Annals of Mathematics Second Series, vol. 117 (1983), no. 1, 35–70

with William H. Meeks: Finite group actions on 3-manifolds. Invent. Math. vol. 86 (1986), no. 2, 287–346 Introduction to 3-Manifolds, University of Maryland, College Park 1975

with Gadde A. Swarup: Regular neighbourhoods and canonical decompositions for groups, Société Mathématique de France, 2003 with Gadde A. Swarup: Regular neighbourhoods and canonical decompositions for groups, Electron. Res. Announc. Amer. Math. Soc. vol. 8 (2002), 20–28