Andrew Alexander Ranicki (born Andrzej Aleksander Ranicki; 30 December 1948 – 21 February 2018) was a British mathematician who worked on algebraic topology. He was a professor of mathematics at the University of Edinburgh.
Life
Ranicki was the only child of the well-known literary critic Marcel Reich-Ranicki
and the artist Teofila Reich-Ranicki; he spoke Polish in his family. Born in London, he lived in
Warsaw, in Frankfurt am Main and
Hamburg, and attended school in England at the King's School, Canterbury from the age of sixteen.
[Emilia Smechowski: „Er hatte die Wucht eines Niagara-Falls“, Interview in Die Tageszeitung, 13. September 2014, S. 32 f.][Volker Hage, Martin Doerry: Spiegel-Gespräch: „Ich habe nie gefragt“, Der Spiegel, May 26, 2014]['Cambridge Tripos: English; Medical Sciences; Mathematics', Times, 20 June 1969.]
Ranicki studied Mathematics at Trinity College, Cambridge, and graduated with a BA in 1969.[ Curriculum Vitae, Andrew Ranicki]
From 1977 to 1982, he was assistant professor at Princeton University. In 1982, he began at the University of Edinburgh as a lecturer; in 1987, he was promoted to reader. In 1992, he became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.[ Directory of Fellows , page 33.] From 1995, Ranicki was the Chair of Surgery theory at the University of Edinburgh.[ Chair of Algebraic Surgery, University of Edinburgh, Communications and Marketing.] Several times, he stayed as a visiting scientist at the Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in Bonn, most recently in 2011.[Johannes Seiler: "Mathematics is a drug!" A conversation with Andrew Ranicki, Bonner General-Anzeiger from January 8–9, 2011 on the website of the Max Planck Institute for Mathematics Bonn]
Personal life and death
Ranicki married American paleontologist Ida Thompson in 1979; they had a daughter. Ranicki suffered from
leukemia; he died peacefully in the presence of his wife.
[Thomas Anz: Obituary of Andrew Ranicki, literaturkritik.de, February 22, 2018.]
A conference celebrating his legacy was held at the International Centre for Mathematical Sciences (Edinburgh) in summer 2020.
Published works
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Exact sequences in the algebraic theory of surgery, Princeton University Press, 1981.
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Lower K and L Theory, London Mathematical Society Lecture Notes, Vol. 178, Cambridge University Press. 1992.
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Algebraic L-Theory and Topological Manifolds, Cambridge Tracts in Mathematics Vol. 102, Cambridge University Press, 1992.
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Algebraic and Geometric Surgery, Oxford University Press, 2002.
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High dimensional knot theory , Springer, 1998.
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with Bruce Hughes: Ends of Complexes , Cambridge Tracts in Mathematics Vol. 123, Cambridge University Press, 1996.
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with Norman Levitt and Frank Quinn: "Algebraic and geometric topology" (Rutgers University conference, New Brunswick, 1983), Springer 1985, Lecture Notes in Mathematics Vol. 1126.
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Editor with David W. Lewis and Eva Bayer-Fluckiger: "Quadratic forms and their applications" (Conference Dublin 1999), Contemporary Mathematics Vol. 272, American Mathematical Society, 2000.
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Publisher: Noncommutative Localization in Algebra and Topology , London Mathematical Society Vol. 330, Cambridge University Press, 2006.
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Editor with Steven Ferry and Jonathan Rosenberg: "The Novikov conjectures, index theorems and rigidity" (Oberwolfach, 1993), London Mathematical Society Lecture Notes, Vol. 226, 227, Cambridge University Press, 1995.
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Editor: The Hauptvermutung Book, Kluwer, 1996.
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Editor with Sylvain Cappell and Jonathan Rosenberg: Surveys on surgery theory. Papers dedicated to C.T. C. Wall.
