11/23/11

Walter Tholen received his Ph.D. ("Dr. rer. nat.") from the University of Münster in 1974 and his "Habilitation" four years later from Fernuniversität Hagen, Germany. Since 1983 he has been working at York University in Toronto, assuming the position of Full Professor in 1988. He chaired the Department of Mathematics and Statistics from 1989 until 1992. In 2007 he was appointed Associate Dean (Research and Faculty Affairs) in the Faculty of Science and Engineering, and in 2009-10 he served the Faculty as Interim Dean. In 2011 he was appointed as Associate Vice-President Research. He was Visiting Professor at numerous institutions, including ETH Zürich, Max Plack Institute for Mathematics in Bonn, University of British Columbia, McGill University, University of Sydney, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Georgian Academy of Sciences, University of Coimbra, University of L'Aquila, University of Trieste, Universty of Perugia,  Masaryk University, Université Catholique de Louvain, Université du Littoral, University of Bremen, and Fernuniversität. 

His general research interests are in Category Theory and its applications to Algebra, Topology, and Computer Science. Much of his work concerns the establishment of algebraic and topological facts in arbitrary categories, without recourse to sets. He co-authored a monograph on "The Categorical Structure of Closure Operators" with D. Dikranjan (Kluwer-Springer, 1995), and more recently he co-edited books on "Categorical Foundations" (with M. C. Pedicchio, Cambridge University Press 2004) and on "Galois Theory, Hopf Algebras, and Semiabelian Categories" (with George Janelidze and Bodo Pareigis, American Mathematical Society 2004). His work is published in some 120 research articles, and it is supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Council of Canada.