Daniel Quillen

Daniel Gray Quillen (June 22, 1940 – April 30, 2011)

was an American mathematician. He is known for Daniel Quillen
being the "prime architect" of higher algebraic K- Born June 22, 1940
theory, for which he was awarded the Cole Prize in Orange, New Jersey
1975 and the Fields Medal in 1978. Died April 30, 2011 (aged 70)
Haven Hospice,[1] North Florida
From 1984 to 2006, he was the Waynflete Professor of
Nationality American
Pure Mathematics at Magdalen College, Oxford.
Known for Algebraic K-theory (Quillen's Q-
construction), Quillen–Suslin
Education and career theorem, Bass–Quillen
conjecture, rational homotopy
Quillen was born in Orange, New Jersey, and attended theory, Quillen determinant line
Newark Academy. He entered Harvard University, bundle, Mathai–Quillen formalism,
where he earned both his AB, in 1961, and his PhD in Quillen's lemma, Quillen metric,
1964; the latter completed under the supervision of Quillen's theorems A and B
Raoul Bott, with a thesis in partial differential Awards Fields Medal (1978)
equations. He was a Putnam Fellow in 1959.[2] Cole Prize (1975)
Putnam Fellow (1959)
Quillen obtained a position at the Massachusetts
Scientific career
Institute of Technology after completing his doctorate.
He also spent a number of years at several other Fields Mathematics

universities. He visited France twice: first as a Sloan Thesis Formal Properties of Over-
Fellow in Paris, during the academic year 1968–69, Determined Systems of Linear
where he was greatly influenced by Grothendieck, and Partial Differential Equations (http
then, during 1973–74, as a Guggenheim Fellow. In s://search.worldcat.org/title/76994
1969–70, he was a visiting member of the Institute for 794) (1964)
Advanced Study in Princeton, where he came under Doctoral Raoul Bott
the influence of Michael Atiyah. advisor
Doctoral Kenneth Brown
In 1978, Quillen received a Fields Medal at the
students Varghese Mathai
International Congress of Mathematicians held in
Helsinki.[3]

From 1984 to 2006, he was the Waynflete Professor of Pure Mathematics at Magdalen College, Oxford.

Quillen retired at the end of 2006. He died from complications of Alzheimer's disease on April 30, 2011,
aged 70, in Florida.[4]

Mathematical contributions
Quillen's best known contribution (mentioned specifically in his Fields medal citation) was his
formulation of higher algebraic K-theory in 1972. This new tool, formulated in terms of homotopy theory,
proved to be successful in formulating and solving problems in algebra, particularly in ring theory and
module theory. More generally, Quillen developed tools (especially his theory of model categories) that
allowed algebro-topological tools to be applied in other contexts.

Before his work in defining higher algebraic K-theory, Quillen worked on the Adams conjecture,
formulated by Frank Adams, in homotopy theory.[5] His proof of the conjecture used techniques from the
modular representation theory of groups, which he later applied to work on cohomology of groups and
algebraic K-theory. He also worked on complex cobordism, showing that its formal group law is
essentially the universal one.

In related work, he also supplied a proof of Serre's conjecture about the triviality of algebraic vector
bundles on affine space, which led to the Bass–Quillen conjecture. He was also an architect (along with
Dennis Sullivan) of rational homotopy theory.[6]

He introduced the Quillen determinant line bundle and the Mathai–Quillen formalism.

See also
Friedhelm Waldhausen

Selected publications
Quillen, Daniel G. "Homology of commutative rings" (https://web.archive.org/web/20150420
184538/http://chromotopy.org/paste/quillen.djvu). unpublished notes. Archived from the
original (http://chromotopy.org/paste/quillen.djvu) on 2015-04-20.
Quillen, Daniel G. (1967). Homotopical Algebra. Lecture Notes in Mathematics. Vol. 43.
Berlin, New York: Springer-Verlag. doi:10.1007/BFb0097438 (https://doi.org/10.1007%2FBF
b0097438). ISBN 978-3-540-03914-3. MR 0223432 (https://mathscinet.ams.org/mathscinet-
getitem?mr=0223432).
Quillen, Daniel (1969). "On the formal group laws of unoriented and complex cobordism
theory" (https://doi.org/10.1090%2FS0002-9904-1969-12401-8). Bulletin of the American
Mathematical Society. 75 (6): 1293–1298. doi:10.1090/S0002-9904-1969-12401-8 (https://d
oi.org/10.1090%2FS0002-9904-1969-12401-8). MR 0253350 (https://mathscinet.ams.org/m
athscinet-getitem?mr=0253350).
Quillen, D. (1969). "Rational homotopy theory". Annals of Mathematics. 90 (2): 205–295.
doi:10.2307/1970725 (https://doi.org/10.2307%2F1970725). JSTOR 1970725 (https://www.j
stor.org/stable/1970725). MR 0258031 (https://mathscinet.ams.org/mathscinet-getitem?mr=
0258031).
Quillen, Daniel (1971). "The Adams conjecture" (https://doi.org/10.1016%2F0040-9383%28
71%2990018-8). Topology. 10: 67–80. doi:10.1016/0040-9383(71)90018-8 (https://doi.org/1
0.1016%2F0040-9383%2871%2990018-8). ISSN 0040-9383 (https://search.worldcat.org/iss
n/0040-9383). MR 0279804 (https://mathscinet.ams.org/mathscinet-getitem?mr=0279804).
Quillen, Daniel (1971). "The spectrum of an equivariant cohomology ring. I". Annals of
Mathematics. Second Series. 94 (3): 549–572. doi:10.2307/1970770 (https://doi.org/10.230
7%2F1970770). ISSN 0003-486X (https://search.worldcat.org/issn/0003-486X).
JSTOR 1970770 (https://www.jstor.org/stable/1970770). MR 0298694 (https://mathscinet.am
s.org/mathscinet-getitem?mr=0298694).
 Quillen, Daniel (1971). "The spectrum of an equivariant cohomology ring. II". Annals of
Mathematics. Second Series. 94 (3): 573–602. doi:10.2307/1970770 (https://doi.org/10.230
7%2F1970770). ISSN 0003-486X (https://search.worldcat.org/issn/0003-486X).
JSTOR 1970771 (https://www.jstor.org/stable/1970771). MR 0298694 (https://mathscinet.am
s.org/mathscinet-getitem?mr=0298694).
Quillen, Daniel (1973). "Higher algebraic K-theory. I". Algebraic K-theory, I: Higher K-
theories (Proc. Conf., Battelle Memorial Inst., Seattle, Wash., 1972). Lecture Notes in Math.
Vol. 341. Berlin, New York: Springer-Verlag. pp. 85–147. doi:10.1007/BFb0067053 (https://d
oi.org/10.1007%2FBFb0067053). ISBN 978-3-540-06434-3. MR 0338129 (https://mathscine
t.ams.org/mathscinet-getitem?mr=0338129).
Quillen, Daniel (1975). "Higher algebraic K-theory". Proceedings of the International
Congress of Mathematicians (Vancouver, B. C., 1974), Vol. 1. Montreal, Quebec: Canad.
Math. Congress. pp. 171–176. MR 0422392 (https://mathscinet.ams.org/mathscinet-getite
m?mr=0422392). (Quillen's Q-construction)
Quillen, Daniel (1974). "Higher K-theory for categories with exact sequences". New
developments in topology (Proc. Sympos. Algebraic Topology, Oxford, 1972). London Math.
Soc. Lecture Note Ser. Vol. 11. Cambridge University Press. pp. 95–103. MR 0335604 (http
s://mathscinet.ams.org/mathscinet-getitem?mr=0335604).
Quillen, Daniel (1976). "Projective modules over polynomial rings". Inventiones
Mathematicae. 36: 167–171. Bibcode:1976InMat..36..167Q (https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/a
bs/1976InMat..36..167Q). doi:10.1007/BF01390008 (https://doi.org/10.1007%2FBF0139000
8). S2CID 119678534 (https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:119678534).
Quillen, Daniel (1985). "Superconnections and the Chern character" (https://doi.org/10.101
6%2F0040-9383%2885%2990047-3). Topology. 24 (1): 89–95. doi:10.1016/0040-
9383(85)90047-3 (https://doi.org/10.1016%2F0040-9383%2885%2990047-3). ISSN 0040-
9383 (https://search.worldcat.org/issn/0040-9383). MR 0790678 (https://mathscinet.ams.or
g/mathscinet-getitem?mr=0790678).

References
1. commalg.org (1 May 2011). "Daniel Quillen" (http://www.commalg.org/2011/05/daniel-quille
n/).
2. "The Mathematical Association of America's William Lowell Putnam Competition" (http://ww
w.maa.org/awards/putnam.html). Retrieved 2013-03-28.
3. "Home - International Mathematical Union (IMU)" (http://www.mathunion.org/index.php?id=p
rizewinners). www.mathunion.org.
4. "commalg.org: Daniel Quillen" (http://www.commalg.org/2011/05/daniel-quillen). 2011.
Retrieved 5 May 2011.
5. Segal, Graeme (June 23, 2011), "Daniel Quillen obituary" (https://www.theguardian.com/sci
ence/2011/jun/23/daniel-quillen-obituary), The Guardian
6. Quillen, D. (1969), "Rational homotopy theory", Annals of Mathematics, 90 (2): 205–295,
doi:10.2307/1970725 (https://doi.org/10.2307%2F1970725), JSTOR 1970725 (https://www.j
stor.org/stable/1970725), MR 0258031 (https://mathscinet.ams.org/mathscinet-getitem?mr=
0258031)

External links
Archive of Daniel Quillen’s notebooks for the years 1970 through 2003 (http://www.claymath.
org/publications/quillen-notebooks) at the Clay Mathematics Institute
 O'Connor, John J.; Robertson, Edmund F., "Daniel Quillen" (https://mathshistory.st-andrews.
ac.uk/Biographies/Quillen.html), MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive, University of St
Andrews
Daniel Quillen (https://mathgenealogy.org/id.php?id=13325) at the Mathematics Genealogy
Project
Friedlander, Eric; Grayson, Daniel (November 2012). "Daniel Quillen" (https://www.ams.org/
notices/201210/rtx121001392p.pdf) (PDF). Notices of the American Mathematical Society.
59 (10): 1392–1406. doi:10.1090/noti903 (https://doi.org/10.1090%2Fnoti903).

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