William Thurston

William Thurston
Thurston in 1991
Born	William Paul Thurston (1946-10-30)October 30, 1946 Washington, D.C., U.S.
Died	August 21, 2012(2012-08-21) (aged 65) Rochester, New York, U.S.
Alma mater	New College of Florida University of California, Berkeley
Known for	Thurston's geometrization conjecture Thurston's theory of surfaces Milnor–Thurston kneading theory Orbifold
Awards	Fields Medal (1982) Oswald Veblen Prize in Geometry (1976) Alan T. Waterman Award (1979) National Academy of Sciences (1983) Doob Prize (2005) Leroy P. Steele Prize (2012).
Scientific career
Fields	Mathematics
Institutions	Cornell University University of California, Davis Mathematical Sciences Research Institute University of California, Berkeley Princeton University Massachusetts Institute of Technology Institute for Advanced Study
Thesis	Foliations of three-manifolds which are circle bundles  (1972)
Doctoral advisor	Morris Hirsch
Doctoral students	Richard Canary Benson Farb David Gabai William Goldman Richard Kenyon Steven Kerckhoff Yair Minsky Igor Rivin Oded Schramm Richard Schwartz Danny Calegari

William Paul Thurston (October 30, 1946 – August 21, 2012) was an American mathematician. He was a pioneer in the field of low-dimensional topology and was awarded the Fields Medal in 1982 for his contributions to the study of 3-manifolds.

Thurston was a professor of mathematics at Princeton University, University of California, Davis, and Cornell University. He was also a director of the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute.