Robert Duncan MacPherson was born in Lakewood, Ohio on May 25, 1944.[1]
He received his bachelor's degree from Swarthmore College in 1966.[1] MacPherson received his PhD from Harvard in 1970 with a thesis, written under the direction of Raoul Bott, entitled Singularities of Maps and Characteristic Classes.[2]
Career
MacPherson was at Brown University as a J. D. Tamarkin Instructor from 1970 to 1972, an assistant professor from 1972 to 1974, an associate professor from 1974 to 1977, and then a professor from 1977 to 1987.[1] He was a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology from 1987 to 1994.[1] He became a professor of mathematics at the Institute for Advanced Study in 1994, later becoming named a Hermann Weyl Professor.[1] He retired and became a professor emeritus 2018.[1]
MacPherson's PhD advisee, Mark Goresky, later became his life partner.[3] After the collapse of the Soviet Union, they were instrumental in channeling aid to Russian mathematicians, especially many who had to hide their sexuality.[3]
Selected publications
Goresky, Mark; MacPherson, Robert, La dualité de Poincaré pour les espaces singuliers, C. R. Acad. Sci. Paris Sér. A-B 284 (1977), no. 24, A1549–A1551. MR0440533
