nLab Karol Borsuk

Karol Borsuk was a Polish topologist, who was famous for numerous theorems of classical topology.

He was the initial developer of shape theory, and then was leader of a very influential group of researchers in that area.

• St. Andrews History page

• Wikipedia entry (English)

• Wikipedia entry (Polish)

Selected writings

Introducing the notion of absolute neighbourhood retracts:

• Karol Borsuk, Über eine Klasse von lokal zusammenhängenden Räumen, Fund. Math. 19 (1932) 220-242 (dml:212574, pdf)

On the nerve theorem:

• Karol Borsuk, On the imbedding of systems of compacta in simplicial complexes , Fund. Math. 35, (1948) 217–234 (dml:213158)

More on absolute neighbourhood retracts:

• Karol Borsuk, Concerning the classification of topological spaces from the stand point of the theory of retracts, Fundamenta Mathematicae 46 (3) (1959) 321-330 (dml:213516)

Introducing unstable Cohomotopy groups:

• Karol Borsuk, Sur les groupes des classes de transformations continues, CR Acad. Sci. Paris 202 2-3 (1936) 1400-1403 [ark:12148/bpt6k3154f, pdf]

On shape theory:

• Karol Borsuk, Concerning homotopy properties of compacta, Fund Math. 62 (1968) 223-254

• Karol Borsuk, Theory of Shape, Monografie Matematyczne Tom 59, Warszawa 1975 (mathscinet:0418088)

• Karol Borsuk, Jerzy Dydak, What is the theory of shape?, Bulletin of the Australian Mathematical Society, 1980, 22(2), 161-198, (doi:10.1017/S000497270000647X)

On Witold Hurewicz:

• Karol Borsuk: Witold Hurewicz – Life and Work, in: Handbook of the History of General Topology. History of Topology, vol 1., Springer (1997) [doi:10.1007/978-94-017-0468-7_6]

Related entries

• shape theory

• nerve theorem

• cohomotopy

• retract

category: people