Oswald Veblen

Mathematician, born in Brooklin, Maine, USA, the nephew of Thorstein Veblen. Known for developing the school of mathematics at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton (1932–50), he had considerable influence on many mathematicians including Robert Lee Moore, Joseph Wedderburn, Alonzo Church, and J H C Whitehead. His greatest contribution to mathematics was to geometry.

Oswald Veblen (24 June 1880 in Decorah, Iowa - 10 August 1960) was an American mathematician, geometer and topologist, whose work found application in atomic physics and the theory of relativity.

During his career, he made important contributions in topology and in projective and differential geometries, including results important in modern physics.

He gave a very curious definition of religion: "Religion is a fabrication of vendible imponderables in the nth dimension."

Veblen died in Brooklin, Maine in 1960 at age 80.