 oscar zariski (born oscher zaritsky () april 24, 1899 â july 4, 1986) was an american mathematician and one of the most influential algebraic geometers of the 20th century. ==education== zariski was born oscher (also transliterated as ascher or osher) zaritsky to a jewish family (his parents were bezalel zaritsky and hanna tennenbaum) and in 1918 studied at the university of kiev. he left kiev in 1920 to study in rome where he became a disciple of the italian school of algebraic geometry, studying with guido castelnuovo, federigo enriques and francesco severi. zariski wrote a doctoral dissertation in 1924 on a topic in galois theory. at the time of his dissertation publication, he changed his name to oscar zariski. ==johns hopkins university years== zariski emigrated to the united states in 1927 supported by solomon lefschetz. he had a position at johns hopkins university where he became professor in 1937. during this period, he wrote algebraic surfaces as a summation of the work of the italian school. the book was published in 1935 and reissued 36 years later, with detailed notes by zariski's students that illustrated how the field of algebraic geometry had changed. it is still an important reference. it seems to have been this work that set the seal of zariski's discontent with the approach of the italians to birational geometry. the question of rigour he addressed by recourse to commutative algebra. the zariski topology, as it was later known, is 
1899_births 1986_deaths 20th-century_American_mathematicians 20th-century_mathematicians Algebraic_geometers American_Jews American_atheists American_people_of_Belarusian-Jewish_descent Belarusian_Jews Belarusian_atheists Belarusian_scientists Guggenheim_Fellows Harvard_University_faculty Jewish_atheists Johns_Hopkins_University_faculty National_Medal_of_Science_laureates People_from_Brookline,_Massachusetts People_from_Kobryn Presidents_of_the_American_Mathematical_Society Wolf_Prize_in_Mathematics_laureates