The Texas-Polish Connection in the History of Topology
by
Albert C. Lewis
Indiana University - Indianapolis

From the 1920s, when topology as we know it today began, two schools developed a branch of topology, one coming from R. L. Moore in Austin, Texas, and the other from a group that included S. Mazurkiewicz and W. Sierpi\'nski in Warsaw. Though each developed the field of continua and locally-connected continua in an essentially independent fashion from the other, there were from the beginning demonstrations of cooperation as well as competition. Early letters were followed by visits to Warsaw of the students of Moore-R. G. Lubben, J. R. Kline, and G. T. Whyburn-who met the corresponding Polish generation that included K. Zarankiewicz and C. Kuratowski. This has continued through visits and joint publications of successive generations to the present day.

Date received: February 9, 2000