Award: Carl B. Allendoerfer

Year of Award: 1995

Publication Information: Mathematics Magazine, Vol. 67(1994), pp. 92-108

Summary: Visual representations of various concepts and theorems in complex analysis.

Link to Article

About the Author: (from Mathematics Magazine, Vol. 67 (1994)) Tristan Needham studied black holes under Roger Penrose, receivng his D.Phil. from Oxford University in 1987. In 1989 he left England to join the happy band of mathematicians at the University of San Francisco. After studying Newton's Principia, he gradually realized how Newton's infinitesimal geometry might profitably be applied to the complex plane. The success of this approach in reducing the beautiful truths of elementary complex analysis to visually evident facts led to the writing of his book Visual Complex Analysis, [Oxford University Press, Oxford]. The present article is based on a section of that work.