Norman Johnson (mathematician)

Norman Johnson was born on November 12, 1930 in Chicago. His father had a bookstore and published a local newspaper.^[1]

Johnson earned his undergraduate mathematics degree in 1953 at Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota^[2] followed by a master's degree from the University of Pittsburgh.^[1] After graduating in 1953, Johnson did alternative civilian service as a conscientious objector.^[1] He earned his PhD from the University of Toronto in 1966 with a dissertation title of The Theory of Uniform Polytopes and Honeycombs under the supervision of H. S. M. Coxeter.^[T66] From there, he accepted a position in the Mathematics Department of Wheaton College in Massachusetts and taught until his retirement in 1998.^[1]

In 1966, Johnson published a paper titled Convex Polyhedra with Regular Faces.^[A66] Inside, it contained the list of 92 convex polyhedra with regular faces,^[1] along with the coined prefixes on naming some solids; encompassing the family of prisms, antiprisms, and other uniform polyhedra brings up 112 solids in total.^[3] Victor Zalgaller later proved in 1969 that Johnson's list of 92 solids was complete, and the set is now known as the Johnson solids or Johnson–Zalgaller solid.^[4][3][5]

Johnson is also credited with naming all the uniform star polyhedra and their duals, as published in Magnus Wenninger's model building books: Polyhedron models (1971) and Dual models (1983).^[6]

He completed final edits for his book Geometries and Transformations^[B18] just before his death on July 13, 2017, and nearly completed his manuscript on uniform polytopes.^[1]