Marston Morse - Quotes

Mathematician, born in Waterville, Maine, USA. A member of the newly founded Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton (1935–62), he specialized in mathematical analysis. Honoured after World War 1 for his military service, and after World War 2 for his contributions to ordnance, he was a representative at the United Nations Atoms for Peace Conference (1952). He was known for his love of playing the piano, of sports, and of France.

Marston Morse (24 March 1892 – 22 June 1977) was an American mathematician best known for his work on the calculus of variations in the large, a subject where he introduced the technique of differential topology now known as Morse theory.

Harold Calvin Marston Morse was born in Waterville, Maine to Ella Phoebe Marston and Howard Calvin Morse in 1892.

He taught at Harvard, Brown, and Cornell Universities before accepting a position in 1935 at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, where he remained until his retirement in 1962.

He spent most of his career on a single subject, eponymously titled Morse Theory, a branch of differential topology.

Quotes

"Mathematics are the result of mysterious powers which no one understands, and which the unconscious recognition of beauty must play an important part.