(1904-1960) British mathematician who studied the more abstract areas of differential geometry, and of algebraic and geometrical topology.
Whitehead was born in Madras, India, and studied at Oxford, where he became professor 1947.
Whitehead's early research was on differential geometry, and the application of differential calculus and differential equations to the study of geometrical figures.
Some of his most significant work was in the study of knots. In geometry a knot is a two-dimensional representation of a three-dimensional curve that because of its dimensional reduction (by topological distortion) appears to have nodes (to loop onto itself).
Whitehead wrote a textbook together with Oswald Veblen (1880–1960), Foundations of Differential Geometry 1932.

(1861-1947) English philosopher and mathematician. In his “theory of organism”, he attempted a synthesis of metaphysics and science. His works include Principia Mathematica 1910–13 (with Bertrand Russell), The Concept of Nature 1920, and Adventures of Ideas 1933.
Whitehead’s research in mathematics involved a highly original attempt—incorporating the principles of logic—to create an extension of ordinary algebra to universal algebra (A Treatise of Universal Algebra 1898), and a meticulous re-examination of the relativity theory of Albert Einstein.
Whitehead was born in Ramsgate, Kent, and studied at Cambridge. He was professor of applied mathematics at London University 1914–24 and professor of philosophy at Harvard University, US, 1924–37.
At the International Congress of Philosophy in 1900, Whitehead and Russell heard Italian mathematician Giuseppe Peano describe the method by which he had arrived at his axioms concerning the natural numbers, and they spent the next ten years on their project to deduce mathematics from logic in a general and fundamental way.
Other works include Principles of Natural Knowledge 1919, Science and the Modern World 1925, and Process and Reality 1929.

A small whitish lump in the skin due to a clogged sebaceous gland; SYN. milium.