Selected Papers

Saunders Mac Lane takes the reader on a journey through the most important milestones of the mathematical world in the twentieth century as the selection of his distinguished papers written up to 1977 in this book shows. He was an extraordinary mathematician and a dedicated teacher, who cared deeply about the values of science and education. Saunders Mac Lane's life covers nearly a century of mathematical developments. During the earlier part of the twentieth century, he participated in the exciting happenings in Göttingen. He studied under David Hilbert, Hermann Weyl, and Paul Bernays. Later, he contributed to the more abstract and general mathematical viewpoints developed in the twentieth century. Perhaps the most outstanding accomplishment during his long and extraordinary career was the development of the concept of categories, together with Samuel Eilenberg, and the creation of a theory that has broad applications in different areas of mathematics, in particular topology and foundations. As a member and vice president of the National Academy of Science and an advisor to the Administration, he exerted considerable influence on science and education policies in the post-war period.