Stevo Todorčević

Todorčević was born in Ubovića Brdo. As a child he moved to Banatsko Novo Selo,[3] and went to school in Pančevo.[4] At Belgrade University, he studied pure mathematics, attending lectures by Đuro Kurepa. He began graduate studies in 1978, and wrote his doctoral thesis in 1979 with Kurepa as his advisor.[5]

Todorčević's work involves mathematical logic, set theory, and their applications to pure mathematics.

In Todorčević's 1978 master’s thesis, he constructed a model of MA + ¬wKH in a way to allow him to make the continuum any regular cardinal, and so derived a variety of topological consequences. Here MA is an abbreviation for Martin's axiom and wKH stands for the weak Kurepa Hypothesis.[6] In 1980, Todorčević and Abraham proved the existence of rigid Aronszajn trees and the consistency of MA + the negation of the continuum hypothesis + there exists a first countable S-space.[7]

Todorčević is the winner of

• the first prize of the Balkan Mathematical Society for 1980 and 1982,[8]
• the 2012 CRM-Fields-PIMS prize in mathematical sciences,[9] and
• the Shoenfield prize of the Association for Symbolic Logic for "outstanding expository writing in the field of logic" in 2013, for his book Introduction to Ramsey Spaces.[10]^[IRS]

He was selected by the Association for Symbolic Logic as their 2016 Gödel Lecturer.[11]

He became a corresponding member of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts as of 1991 and a full member of the Academy in 2009.[12] In 2016 Todorčević became a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.[13]

Todorčević has been described as "the greatest Serbian mathematician" since the time of Mihailo Petrović Alas.[14]

Todorčević is the author of books in mathematics that include:

• Partition problems in topology (1989)[15]
• Some applications of the method of forcing (with I. Farah, 1995)[16]
• Topics in topology (1997)[17]
• Ramsey methods in analysis (with S. A. Argyros, 2005)[18]
• Walks on ordinals and their characteristics (2007)[19]
• Introduction to Ramsey spaces (2010)[20]
• Notes on forcing axioms (2014)[21]

• Baumgartner's axiom
• Kechris–Pestov–Todorčević correspondence
• Open coloring axiom
• S and L spaces

• Larson, Jean A. (2012), "Infinite combinatorics", in Gabbay, Dov M.; Kanamori, Akihiro; Woods, John (eds.), Sets and extensions in the twentieth century, Handbook of the History of Logic, vol. 6, Amsterdam: Elsevier/North-Holland, pp. 145–357, doi:10.1016/B978-0-444-51621-3.50003-7, ISBN 978-0-444-51621-3, MR 3409860.
• RSC Fellowship Citation and Detailed Appraisal: Stevo Todorcevic

• CRM Fields PIMS Prize Lecture: Prof. Stevo Todorcevic (photo album)
• CRM-Fields-PIMS Prize Lecture: Stevo Todorcevic (University of Toronto)
• Stevo Todorcevic at University of Toronto
• Stevo Todorcevic at Institut de mathématiques de Jussieu – Paris Rive Gauche
• Todorčević najcenjeniji (Todorčević most respected)(in Serbian)
• Dispute over Infinity Divides Mathematicians by Natalie Wolchover, Quanta Magazine, November 26, 2013; contains some comments on choices of axioms for set theory
• Stevo Todorcevic at Institute for Advanced Study
• Prof. Todorčević Interview(in Serbian)