Raoul Bott Was Professor, Pioneering Mathematician

Raoul Bott, a groundbreaking mathematician in the field of topology and geometry and longtime professor at Harvard University, died of cancer Dec. 20 at home in Carlsbad, Calif. He was 82.

Outside the classroom Mr. Bott was also passionate about music; he took piano lessons as an adult, listing Bach among his favorite composers. He was an exuberant and gregarious individual, who valued his close ties with relatives and friends. In particular he loved spending time at the family's home on Middle Road in Chilmark, purchased in 1978. It was a valued summer retreat for the Bott family, and Mr. Bott was a perennial presence on Lucy Vincent Beach.

Raoul Bott was born in Budapest, Hungary, on Sept. 24, 1923. He left Europe at the age of 15, on the eve of the second World War, traveling first to England where he lived for one year. In 1939 he moved with his stepparents to Canada. He attended school in Montreal and later was graduated from McGill University, from which he earned undergraduate and master's degrees in electrical engineering.

Mr. Bott joined the Canadian Army for six months before the war with Japan officially ended. After returning to McGill, he met Phyllis, whom he married in 1947. That same year they moved to Pittsburgh, Pa., where he shifted focus and earned a doctoral degree in mathematics from the Carnegie Institute of Technology. Afterward he spent two years at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, during the time Albert Einstein was in residence.

In 1959 he accepted a full professorship at Harvard University, and moved with Phyllis and their four children to Newton. Mr. Bott taught at Harvard for 45 years.

Over the course of his career, he made a number of important contributions to mathematics.

He developed what became known as the Bott periodicity theorem in 1959, the importance of which some mathematicians have compared to the discovery of the periodic table of elements. Starting in the sixties he began working with Sir Michael Atiyah of the University of Edinburg, examining various aspects of theoretical mathematics; together they developed the Atiyah-Bott fixed-point theorem.

Mr. Bott also contributed to the Borel-Weil-Bott theorem and studied foliations, a type of differential equation. His recent research focused on developing mathematical tools to aid physicists working to reconcile theories of general and quantum relativity.

The American Mathematical Society awarded him the Leroy P. Steele Prize for Lifetime Achievement in 1990. He received the National Medal of Science in 1987 and won the Wolf Foundation Prize in Mathematics in 2000. He also was a member of the National Academy of Sciences.

Mr. Bott is survived by his wife of 58 years, Phyllis; a son, Anthony, of Harwich; three daughters, Candace Bott of Cambridge, Jocelyn Scott of Rancho Sante Fe, Calif., and Renee Bott of Berkeley, Calif.; and nine grandchildren.

Mr. Bott was interred at Abel's Hill Cemetery in Chilmark.

A memorial service has been planned for 1:30 p.m. Jan. 29 at the Memorial Church at Harvard.