Hyman Bass

Bass is an American mathematician best known for his foundational work in algebraic K-theory — his 1968 text long defined the field — as well as commutative algebra, group theory, and, later in his career, mathematics education. He taught at Columbia for nearly four decades and is now at the University of Michigan; he received the National Medal of Science. He was born into a Jewish family in Houston, Texas, the child of immigrants from Lithuania.