We bid farewell to Vaughan Jones who received the Fields Medal in 1990 for discovering an astonishing relationship between von Neumann algebras and geometric topology and finding a new polynomial invariant for knots and links in 3-space. The central connecting link in all this mathematics is a tower of nested algebras which he had discovered earlier in the course of proving the Index Theorem for von Neumann algebras. Jones held several prominent titles including Stevenson Distinguished Professor of Mathematics at Vanderbilt University, Professor Emeritus at University of California, Berkeley, Distinguished Alumni Professor at the University of Auckland, honorary vice-president for life of the International Guild of Knot Tyers and he was also a member of the National Academy of Sciences. Jones was born in New Zealand where he received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Auckland before moving to the University of Geneva to earn his doctorate.

Category: HLFF Forum