b. 1931
John Milnor is an American mathematician renowned for his work in differential topology, K-theory, and dynamical systems. He is best known for discovering exotic smooth structures on the 7-sphere, a breakthrough that opened entirely new areas of geometric topology.
Discovered exotic 7-spheres (non-standard smooth structures)
Received the Fields Medal (1962)
Awarded the Abel Prize (2011) and Wolf Prize (1989)
Foundational contributions to algebraic K-theory (Milnor K-theory)
Authored influential texts including Morse Theory and Topology from the Differentiable Viewpoint