Sumner Byron Myers

Sumner Byron Myers was an American mathematician specializing in topology and differential geometry, born on February 19, 1910. He studied at Harvard University under H. C. Marston Morse, where he graduated with a Ph.D. in 1932, then pursued postdoctoral studies at Princeton University from 1934 to 1936 before becoming a professor of mathematics at the University of Michigan. He died unexpectedly from a heart attack on October 8, 1955 during the Michigan-Army football game at Michigan Stadium. The Sumner B. Myers Prize, first presented in 1962 in his honor, is an annual award administered by the Department of Mathematics at the University of Michigan that recognizes mathematics Ph.D. students whose doctoral theses are considered distinguished contributions to their fields of research.