Fred Galvin

Frederick William Galvin is a mathematician and a professor at the University of Kansas whose research interests include set theory and combinatorics. In combinatorics he proved the Dinitz theorem on list colourings. In set theory he proved with Andras Hajnal a bound on the power of a strong limit cardinal of uncountable cofinality, and the research that followed this result led Saharon Shelah to the invention of PCF theory. He gave an elementary proof of the Baumgartner-Hajnal theorem, proved square bracket partition relations with Shelah, and with Karel Prikry proved that every Borel set is Ramsey. With Peter Komjath he showed that the axiom of choice is equivalent to the statement that every graph has a chromatic number. He received his doctorate from the University of Minnesota in 1967.