It was at Michigan that Bott supervised his first doctoral student, Stephen Smale . Smale earned his doctorate in 1957 for the thesis Regular Curves on Riemannian Manifolds and went on to win a Fields Medal in 1966.
Ito ay sa Michigan na Bott supervised kanyang unang mag-aaral ng doktor, Stephen Smale. Smale kinita ng kanyang titulo ng doktor sa 1957 para sa tisis Regular kurva sa Riemannian Manifolds at nagpunta sa upang manalo ng isang patlang na medalya sa 1966.