Jerome P. Levine ’62

Jerome P. Levine, professor of mathematics at Brandeis University and a prominent theorist in topology, died April 8, 2006, of lymphatic cancer. He was 68.

After earning a bachelor's from MIT in 1958, Levine earned a Ph.D. in mathematics from Princeton in 1962, under Professor Norman Steenrod. He then taught at MIT and began to enhance the subject of topology, especially knot theory. His early work in this field produced significant applications of the new tool of surgery theory, which then dominated geometric topology in the 1960s and 1970s. More recently, his contributions were important to the algebraic and geometric topology of low-dimensional knots and links.

After MIT, Levine moved to the University of California, Berkeley, and then spent a year at Cambridge University as a postdoctoral fellow before joining Brandeis University in 1966, rising to full professor in 1969.

Levine was known among his colleagues for his support of younger mathematicians, his kindness, and his generosity.

He is survived by his wife, Sandy, three children, and five grandchildren.

This issue has undergraduate memorials for Merle Lawrence '38 *41, Craig Hugh Smyth '38 *56, and Carter Harman '40 *42.