Editing John Milnor (section)

==Early life and career==
Milnor was born on February 20, 1931, in [[Orange, New Jersey]].<ref>Staff. [https://library.ias.edu/files/pdfs/hs/cos.pdf#page=35 ''A COMMUNITY OF SCHOLARS: The Institute for Advanced Study Faculty and Members 1930–1980''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111124234612/http://library.ias.edu/files/pdfs/hs/cos.pdf#page=35 |date=November 24, 2011 }}, p.&nbsp;35. [[Institute for Advanced Study]], 1980. Accessed November 24, 2015. "Milnor, John Willard M, Topology Born 1931 Orange, NJ."</ref> His father was J. Willard Milnor, an  engineer,<ref>{{Cite web |title=John Milnor - Biography |url=https://mathshistory.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Milnor/ |access-date=2023-03-27 |website=Maths History |language=en}}</ref> and his mother was Emily Cox Milnor.<ref>{{cite book|author1=Helge Holden|author2=Ragni Piene|title=The Abel Prize 2008–2012|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tEprnQEACAAJ|date=February 3, 2014|publisher=Springer Berlin Heidelberg|isbn=978-3-642-39448-5|pages=353–360}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Allen G. Debus|title=World Who's who in Science: A Biographical Dictionary of Notable Scientists from Antiquity to the Present|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CZNNAQAAIAAJ|year=1968|publisher=Marquis-Who's Who|page=1187}}</ref> As an undergraduate at [[Princeton University]] he was named a [[William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition|Putnam Fellow]] in 1949 and 1950<ref name="MMA">{{cite web |title=Putnam Competition Individual and Team Winners |url=http://www.maa.org/programs/maa-awards/putnam-competition-individual-and-team-winners |publisher=[[Mathematical Association of America]] |access-date=December 10, 2021 |archive-date=March 12, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140312205244/http://www.maa.org/programs/maa-awards/putnam-competition-individual-and-team-winners |url-status=dead }}</ref> and also proved the [[Fáry–Milnor theorem]] when he was only 19 years old. Milnor graduated with an A.B. in mathematics in 1951 after completing a senior thesis, titled "Link groups", under the supervision of [[Ralph Fox]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Milnor|first=John W.|url=https://catalog.princeton.edu/catalog/4122388|title=Link groups|date=1951|publisher=Princeton, NJ: Department of Mathematics|language=en}}</ref> He remained at Princeton to pursue graduate studies and received his Ph.D. in mathematics in 1954 after completing a doctoral dissertation, titled "Isotopy of links", also under the supervision of Fox.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Milnor|first=John W.|url=https://catalog.princeton.edu/catalog/1682505|title=Isotopy of links|date=1954|publisher=Princeton, NJ: Department of Mathematics|language=en}}</ref> His dissertation concerned [[link group]]s (a generalization of the classical knot group) and their associated link structure, classifying [[Brunnian link]]s up to link-homotopy and introduced new invariants of it, called [[Milnor invariants]]. Upon completing his doctorate, he went on to work at Princeton. He was a professor at the [[Institute for Advanced Study]] from 1970 to 1990.

He was an editor of the ''[[Annals of Mathematics]]'' for a number of years after 1962. He has written a number of books which are famous for their clarity, presentation, and an inspiration for the research by many mathematicians in their areas even after many decades since their publication. He served as Vice President of the [[American Mathematical Society|AMS]] in 1976–77 period.

His students have included [[Tadatoshi Akiba]], [[Jon Folkman]], [[John Mather (mathematician)|John Mather]], [[Laurent C. Siebenmann]], [[Michael Spivak]], and Jonathan Sondow. His wife, [[Dusa McDuff]], is a professor of mathematics at [[Barnard College]] and is known for her work in [[symplectic topology]].