Hing Tong


Hing Tong was an American mathematician. He is well known for providing the original proof of the Katetov–Tong insertion theorem.

Life

Hing Tong was born in Canton, China. He received his bachelor's degree from the University of Pennsylvania. In 1947, he received his doctorate in mathematics from Columbia University, where his thesis advisor was Edgar Lorch. In 1956, he married fellow mathematician, Mary Powderly. He was the father of five children.

Work

Hing Tong made many significant contributions to the area of algebraic topology, and served in a number of academic capacities. In 1947, after receiving a National Research Council fellowship, he became an assistant professor at Barnard College. In 1955, he was a visiting scholar at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. Also in 1955, he was appointed professor of mathematics at Wesleyan University. He later became a professor of mathematics at Fordham University, where he also served as chairman of the department. He was listed among the Outstanding Educators of America in 1973. Tong retired from academia in 1984 to concentrate on research in theoretical physics. A commemorative brick in the Paul Halmos Commemorative Walk at the Carriage House Conference Center of the Mathematical Association of America in Washington, DC, reads: "Hing Tong, Topology and Physics".

Important publications

  • Hing Tong, "The elements of the theory of transfinite numbers", Columbia University masters dissertation: 1944.
  • Hing Tong, "", Columbia University Ph.D. dissertation: 1947.
  • Hing Tong, "", The Annals of Mathematics, 2nd Series, Vol. 50, No. 1: January, 1949, pp. 154–157.
  • Hing Tong, "", The Annals of Mathematics, 2nd Series, Vol. 50, No. 2: April, 1949, pp. 329–340.
  • Hing Tong, "", Duke Math. J. Volume 19, Number 2: 1952, pp. 289–292.
  • Mary Powderly and Hing Tong, "", The Quarterly Journal of Mathematics, 7, 1956: pp. 1–2.
  • George Kozlowski and Hing Tong, "", Duke Math. J. Volume 33, Number 3: September, 1966, pp. 475–476.
  • Edgar Lorch and Hing Tong, "", Indiana University Mathematics Journal, 16: 1967, pp. 991–995.
  • Edgar Lorch and Hing Tong, "", Indiana University Mathematics Journal, 19: 1970, pp. 189–193.
  • Hing Tong, "", Annali di Matematica Pura ed Applicata, Volume 86, Number 1: December, 1970, pp. 43–45.
  • Hing Tong, "", Annali di Matematica Pura ed Applicata, Volume 86, Number 1: December, 1970, pp. 47–51.
  • Edgar Lorch and Hing Tong, "Compactness, metrizability, and Baire isomorphism", Acta Sci. Math. 35: 1973.
  • Edgar Lorch and Hing Tong, "", Bulletin of the Institute of Mathematics Academia Sinica, Volume 2, Number 2: 1974.
  • Mary Powderly, Hing Tong, and George Kozlowski, "", Bulletin of the Institute of Mathematics Academia Sinica, Volume 3, Number 1: 1975.
  • Edgar Lorch and Hing Tong, "", Annali di Matematica Pura ed Applicata, Volume 103, Number 1: December, 1975.
  • Edgar Lorch and Hing Tong, "", Bulletin of the Institute of Mathematics Academia Sinica, Volume 6, Number 2: 1978.