Norman Woodason Johnson (November 12, 1930 – July 13, 2017) was an American mathematician at Wheaton College, Norton, Massachusetts.
Early life and education Norman Johnson was born on in Chicago. His father had a bookstore and published a local newspaper.
Johnson earned his undergraduate mathematics degree in 1953 at Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota followed by a master's degree from the University of Pittsburgh. After graduating in 1953, Johnson did alternative civilian service as a conscientious objector. He earned his PhD from the University of Toronto in 1966 with a dissertation title of The Theory of Uniform Polytopes and Honeycombs under the supervision of H. S. M. Coxeter. From there, he accepted a position in the Mathematics Department of Wheaton College in Massachusetts and taught until his retirement in 1998.
Career In 1966, Johnson published a paper titled Convex Polyhedra with Regular Faces. Inside, it contained the list of 92 convex polyhedra with regular faces, along with the coined prefixes on naming some solids; encompassing the family of prisms, antiprisms, and other uniform polyhedra brings up 112 solids in total. Victor Zalgaller later proved in 1969 that Johnson's list of 92 solids was complete, and the set is now known as the Johnson solids or Johnson–Zalgaller solid.
Johnson is also credited with naming all the uniform star polyhedra and their duals, as published in Magnus Wenninger's model building books: Polyhedron models (1971) and Dual models (1983).
Death and final works He completed final edits for his book Geometries and Transformations just before his death on , and nearly completed his manuscript on uniform polytopes.
Works Thesis
Articles and books
References
External links
Norman W. Johnson Endowed Fund in Mathematics and Computer Science at Wheaton College