astronomy

William Hamilton Meeks, III

William Hamilton Meeks, III is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand William Hamilton Meeks, III rather than just read about it. In short: William Hamilton Meeks, III (August 8, 1947 - May 24, 2026) was an American mathematician, specializing in differential geometry and minimal surfaces. Biography Meeks studied at the University of California, Berkeley, with a bachelor's degree in 1971, a master's degree in 1974, and a PhD in 1975 with supervisor H.

Key takeaways

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Reference excerpt

William Hamilton Meeks, III (August 8, 1947 - May 24, 2026) was an American mathematician, specializing in differential geometry and minimal surfaces.

Biography Meeks studied at the University of California, Berkeley, with a bachelor's degree in 1971, a master's degree in 1974, and a PhD in 1975 with supervisor H. Blaine Lawson and thesis The Conformal Structure and Geometry of Triply Periodic Minimal Surfaces in R 3 {\displaystyle \mathbb {R} ^{3}} . He was an assistant professor in 1975–1977 at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), in 1977–1978 at the Instituto de Matemática Pura e Aplicada (IMPA), and in 1978–1979 at Stanford University. From 1979 to 1983 he was a professor at IMPA. He was from 1983 to 1984 a visiting member of the Institute for Advanced Study and from 1984 to 1986 a professor at Rice University with the academic year 1985–1986 spent as a visiting professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara. From 1986 to 2018 he has been the George David Birkhoff Professor of Mathematics at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. He currently is at the Institute for Advanced Study after assuming professor emeritus status at UMass Amherst. He is known as an expert on minimal surfaces and their computer graphics visualization; on the latter subject he has collaborated with David Allen Hoffman. For the academic year 2006/07 Meeks was a Guggenheim Fellow. In 1986 at the International Congress of Mathematicians in Berkeley, he was Invited Speaker with talk Recent progress on the geometry of surfaces in R 3 {\displaystyle R^{3}} and on the use of computer graphics as a research tool.

Selected publications with Shing-Tung Yau: Meeks, William H; Yau, Shing-Tung (1980). "Topology of three dimensional manifolds and the embedding problems in minimal surface theory". Annals of Mathematics. 112 (3): 441–484. doi:10.2307/1971088. JSTOR 1971088. Meeks, William H (1981). "A survey of the geometric results in the classical theory of minimal surfaces". Bol. Soc. Bras. Mat. 12 (1): 29–86. doi:10.1007/BF02588319. S2CID 126810651. with Leon Simon and S.-T. Yau: Iii, William Meeks; Simon, Leon; Yau, Shing-Tung (1982). "Embedded minimal surfaces, exotic spheres, and manifolds with positive Ricci curvature". Ann. of Math. 116 (3): 621–659. doi:10.2307/2007026. JSTOR 2007026. with S.-T. Yau: Meeks, William W; Yau, Shing-Tung (1982). "The existence of embedded minimal surfaces and the problem of uniqueness". Mathematische Zeitschrift. 179 (2): 151–168. doi:10.1007/BF01214308. S2CID 120139274. with L. P. Jorge: Jorge, Luquesio P; Meeks, William H (1983). "The topology of complete minimal surfaces of finite total Gaussian curvature". Topology. 22 (2): 203–221. doi:10.1016/0040-9383(83)90032-0. with G. Peter Scott: Meeks, William H; Scott, Peter (1986). "Finite group actions on 3-manifolds". Inventiones Mathematicae. 86 (2): 287–346. Bibcode:1986InMat..86..287M. doi:10.1007/BF01389073. S2CID 121224357. with David Allen Hoffman: Hoffman, David; Meeks, William H (1990). "Embedded minimal surfaces of finite topology". Ann. of Math. 131 (1): 1–34. arXiv:1506.07793. doi:10.2307/1971506. JSTOR 1971506. S2CID 55090193. with D. Hoffman: Hoffman, D; Meeks, W. H (1990). "The strong half space theorem for minimal surfaces". Inventiones Mathematicae. 101 (1): 373–377. Bibcode:1990InMat.101..373H. doi:10.1007/BF01231506. S2CID 10695064. "The geometry, topology, and existence of periodic minimal surfaces". in: Differential geometry: partial differential equations on manifolds (Proceedings of the Summer Research Institute on Differential Geometry held at UCLA. Los Angeles, CA, July 8–28, 1990). Proceedings of Symposia in Pure Mathematics. Vol. 54, Part 1. Amer. Math. Soc. 1993. pp. 333–374. doi:10.1090/pspum/054.1. ISBN 9780821814949. Meeks, W. H (2003). "Geometric results in classical minimal surface theory". Surveys in Differential Geometry. 8 (1): 269–306. doi:10.4310/SDG.2003.v8.n1.a10. with Harold Rosenberg: Meeks, William H; Rosenberg, Harold (2005). "The uniqueness of the helicoid". Ann. of Math. 161 (2): 727–758. doi:10.4007/annals.2005.161.727. JSTOR 3597317. with Joaquín Pérez: Meeks Iii, William H; Pérez, Joaquín (2011). "The classical theory of minimal surfaces". Bull. Amer. Math. Soc. (N.S.). 48 (3): 325–407. doi:10.1090/S0273-0979-2011-01334-9. with J. Pérez and Giuseppe Tinaglia: Meeks III, William H; Perez, Joaquin; Tinaglia, Giuseppe (2016). "Constant mean curvature surfaces". arXiv:1605.02512 [math.DG].

References

External links Homepage IAS Profile

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with William Hamilton Meeks, III

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what William Hamilton Meeks, III claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to William Hamilton Meeks, III before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about William Hamilton Meeks, III ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of William Hamilton Meeks, III

In research: William Hamilton Meeks, III appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses William Hamilton Meeks, III in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: William Hamilton Meeks, III is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1947 births, 20th-century American mathematicians, 21st-century American mathematicians, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for William Hamilton Meeks, III outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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Frequently asked questions

What is William Hamilton Meeks, III in simple terms?

William Hamilton Meeks, III (August 8, 1947 - May 24, 2026) was an American mathematician, specializing in differential geometry and minimal surfaces. Biography Meeks studied at the University of California, Berkeley, with a bachelor's degree in 1971, a master's degree in 1974, and a PhD in 1975 wi…

Why does William Hamilton Meeks, III matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study William Hamilton Meeks, III?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on William Hamilton Meeks, III.