Memorial Resolution for Daniel Henry Gottlieb

02-18-2022

Daniel Henry Gottlieb died at his home in Los Angeles on January 19, 2022.

Dan was born December 7, 1937 in Hollywood, California where he lived until completion of his graduate studies. After graduating from North Hollywood high school, he attended UCLA as both an undergraduate and graduate student, receiving his PhD in 1962 under the direction of S. T. Hu. At the time he was the youngest graduate in the history of the department.

His first position was instructor at the University of Illinois. He then spent three years at the Institute for Defense Analysis in Princeton, and in 1967 joined the Purdue faculty as an associate professor. He was promoted to professor in 1974 and retired from Purdue in 2005.

During his career at Purdue Dan held visiting positions at Cambridge, Tel Aviv University, UCLA, Bonn, IHES, and University of California, Berkeley. Dan's research area was algebraic topology, primarily homotopy theory. He authored or coauthored over fifty papers. He made significant contributions, often marked by the originality of his approach. Of particular note is his work on evaluation groups in the sixties, on transfer maps in the seventies, and his construction of trace invariants in the mid eighties.

Dan succesfully combined his passion for mathematics with his love of travel, giving numerous invited addresses and participating in many conferences. He had seven PhD students. Dan taught a wide array of courses and served on many department, School of Science, and university committees while at Purdue. When he first arrived at Purdue, a topology group was just beginning to form, and Dan was instrumental in developing the graduate
curriculum in topology.

Dan met his wife Judith Schaper at Purdue where, at the time, she was a graduate student in Statistics. They were together for 36 years. After retirement they moved to Marina del Rey in Los Angeles county and continued to travel extensively. Dan also became very involved in environmental issues in the Marina del Rey area.

In addition to his wife Judy, Dan is survived by two sons from a previous marriage, Alex, and Jacob, a brother Ray, and seven grandchildren.

James Becker

Brad Lucier

James McClure