Robert Wayne Thomason

Robert Wayne Thomason (5 November 1952 – 5 November 1995) was an American mathematician who worked on algebraic K-theory. His results include a proof that all infinite loop space machines are in some sense equivalent, and progress on the Quillen–Lichtenbaum conjecture.

Born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Thomason did his undergraduate studies at Michigan State University, graduating with a B.S. in mathematics in 1973. He completed his Ph.D. at Princeton University in 1977, under the supervision of John Moore. According to Charles Weibel, Thomason proved the equivalence of all infinite loop space machines in June 1977, as a 24-year-old graduate student, publishing this result the year after in a joint paper with John Peter May.

From 1977 to 1979 he was a C. L. E. Moore instructor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he wrote his article showing that the category Cat of small categories has a structure of Quillen model category that is Quillen-equivalent to the categories of simplicial sets and topological spaces. From 1979 to 1980 he was a Dickson Assistant Professor at the University of Chicago before resigning due to "perceived persecution" by senior faculty.

Thomason's most influential work is a joint paper with Thomas Trobaugh, even though Trobaugh had died by the time this paper was written. According to Weibel, From October 1989, Thomason held a position in Max Karoubi's laboratory at the University of Paris VII.

Thomason suffered from diabetes; in early November 1995, just shy of his 43rd birthday, he went into diabetic shock and died in his apartment in Paris.

Publications

Erratum