William Francis Pohl Explained

William Francis Pohl (16 September 1937 – 9 December 1988)^[1] was an American mathematician, specializing in differential geometry and known for the Clifton–Pohl torus.

Pohl received from the University of Chicago his B.A in 1957 and his M.A.1958. He completed his Ph.D. at Berkeley in 1961 under the direction of Shiing-Shen Chern with dissertation Differential Geometry of Higher Order. His dissertation was published in 1962 in the journal Topology^[2] and has received over 120 citations in the mathematical literature. He was a member of the mathematics faculty at the University of Minnesota from September 1964 until his untimely death.

Pohl engaged in a famous controversy arguing against Francis Crick^[3] but, in view of additional empirical evidence, conceded about 1979 or 1980 that Crick was correct.^[4]

Pohl sang liturgical music in Catholic religious services and wrote an article in 1966 from which the journal Sacred Music published an excerpt in 2011.^[5]

William Pohl later married Hildegard Bastian (now Hildegard Pohl), and fathered 5 children, Annetta Pohl, Agatha Pohl, Agnes Pohl, Lawrence Pohl, and John Pohl.

Selected publications

• Connexions in differential geometry of higher order. Transactions of the American Mathematical Society. 125. 2. 1966. 310–325. 10.1090/s0002-9947-1966-0203628-1. 1994357. Pohl. William F.. free.
• The self-linking number of a closed space curve (Gauss integral formula treated for disjoint closed space curves linking number). Journal of Mathematics and Mechanics. 17. 975–985. 1968.
• Some integral formulas for space curves and their generalization. American Journal of Mathematics. 90. 4. 1968. 1321–1345. 10.2307/2373302. 2373302. Pohl. William F..
• with T. F. Banchoff: A generalization of the isoperimetric inequality. Journal of Differential Geometry. 6. 2. 1971. 175–192. 0305319. 10.4310/jdg/1214430403. Banchoff. Thomas F.. Pohl. William F.. free.
• with John Alvord Little: On tight immersions of maximal codimension. Inventiones Mathematicae. 13. 3. 1971. 179–204. 10.1007/BF01404629. Little. John A.. Pohl. William F.. 1971InMat..13..179L. 2027.42/46589. 54785966. free.
• with Nicolaas H. Kuiper: Tight topological embeddings of the real projective plane in E⁵. Inventiones Mathematicae. 42. 1. 1977. 177–199. 10.1007/BF01389787. Kuiper. Nicolaas H.. Pohl. William F.. 1977InMat..42..177K. 120800935.
• Book: The probability of linking of random closed curves. Geometry Symposium Utrecht 1980. Lecture Notes in Mathematics. 894. Springer Berlin Heidelberg. 113–126. 1981. 10.1007/BFb0096227. Pohl. William F.. 978-3-540-11167-2.

Notes and References

1. Minnesota Historical Society Death Certificate Search, 1904–2001
2. Pohl, W. F.. Differential geometry of higher order. Topology. 1. 3. 169–211. 10.1016/0040-9383(62)90103-9. 1962. 10338.dmlcz/101530. free.
3. Pohl, W. F.. Roberts, George W.. Topological consideration in the theory of replication of DNA. October 1978. Journal of Mathematical Biology. 6. 4. 383–402. 10.1007/BF02463003. 750633. 29082243.
4. Pohl, W. F.. DNA and differential geometry. The Mathematical Intelligencer. March 1980. 3. 1. 20–27. 10.1007/BF03023391. 119798941.
5. Pohl, W. F.. Liturgical Music and the Liturgical Movement (1966). Sacred Music. 136. 3. 2011. 37.