Claude L. Schochet
Mathematics
Department
Wayne
State University
Detroit,
MI 48202
Educational
Stats
Ph.D. in
Mathematics
- University of Chicago, 1969
- Title of Thesis: Unstable
Two-Stage Postnikov Systems
- Thesis Advisor: J. Peter May
M.S.. in
Mathematics
B.A. in
Mathematics and Economics
- University of Minnesota, Minneapolis,
1965
I have been at Wayne State University since 1976. Before
that I was at Indiana University for
four years, after postdocs at Aarhus University and the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. I’ve had
sabbatical and other leaves at SUNY StonyBrook, UCLA, MSRI (at UC Berkeley),
and the Technion in Haifa, as well as shorter visits to various other places.
Mathematicians tend to get around, as we have no labs to shlep.
Teaching
"Teaching is our opportunity to
pass on to our students an understanding of the ideas, nature and importance of
mathematics; and just sometimes, a glimpse of its beauty. Also, teaching pays
the mortgage." (Steve Hurder)
Research
I started out my mathematical life as
an algebraic topologist, and for the first few years worked diligently
computing homotopy groups and bordism groups. For the latest in this field, you
should check out Clarence Wilkerson's Hopf
Topology Archives.
In early 1973 I got hooked on the
relationship between algebraic topology (and specifically K-theory) and
functional analysis (especially C*-algebras) and have been interdisciplinary
ever since. I have two special theorems-
the
Kunneth Theorem for K-theory of C*-algebras
and
(with
Jon Rosenberg) the Universal Coefficient Theorem for the Kasparov KK-groups
that are used so frequently in the
field that they are not cited – authors just say “by the UCT… “ This is a nice honor and also holds down my
citation counts!
Recently, I’ve been thinking about the
(rational) homotopy groups of the group of unitaries of a C*-algebra as an
alternative to K-theory. The second edition of Moore, Schochet, Global
Analysis on Foliated Spaces, was published by Cambridge University Press in
2006.
Connecting
You can always reach me at claude@math.wayne.edu.
Or you can spot me in the hallway – here’s
a picture of my wife and me at a Purim party…
