Award: Carl B. Allendoerfer

Year of Award: 1981

Publication Information: Mathematics Magazine, Vol. 53, (1980), pp. 81-89

Summary: A simple combinatorial approach to subtle topological premises of basic undergraduate analysis.

Link to Article

About the Author: (from Mathematics Magazine, Vol. 53 (1980)) Donald E. Sanderson studied topology under R. H. Bing at the University of Wisconsin and is retired from Iowa State University. It was Professor Bing's comment, during a lecture on "The Elusive Fixed Point Property", on the lack of a simple "dog chasing a rabbit" type proof of the Brouwer Fixed Point Theorem in dimensions higher than one, that started Donald Sanderson on this chase. After catching the rabbit in the plane (on the Phragmen-Brouwer Property), the chase broadened and produced the "rabbit stew" presented here.