Award: Carl B. Allendoerfer

Year of Award: 1986

Publication Information: Mathematics Magazine, Vol. 58 (1985), pp. 131-145

Summary:The problem of coloring a map on a pretzel or a Moebius band was solved before the Four-Color Problem.

Link to Article

About the Author: (from Mathematics Magazine, Vol. 58 (1985)) Saul Stahl received his Ph.D. in mathematics from Western Michigan University in 1975. He taught for two years at Wright State University and then moved on to the University of Kansas. He classifies himself as a combinatorialist and one of his main interests is the combinatorial underpinning of the Riemann surfaces. The history of mathematics is one of his hobbies and he believes that the development of many mathematical problems and their solutions makes for enjoyable and edifying reading even when most of the details of their proofs are omitted.