Brouwer's dimensionsgrad: controversy and confusion (Q2878139)

In 2012, the author Jan van Mill, retired as full professor of pure mathematics from VU University in Amsterdam. The present paper is based on the text of his farewell lecture. Van Mill is a prominent Dutch set-theoretic topologist working in the Dutch tradition started by L. E. J. Brouwer. Next to biographical details, van Mill discusses several aspects of his own work with particular attention to his cooperation with the Russian topologist Vitaly Fedorchuk jun. In 1999, Fedorchuk and van Mill both proved that the classical 1948 book by Hurewicz and Wallman on dimension theory contains a mistake. For locally connected Polish spaces, Brouwer's dimensionsgrad and the generally accepted notion of dimension turned out not to be identical, contrary to what Hurewicz and Wallman claimed. By the way, in 2014, van Mill, who has not yet reached the age of 65, was reappointed as full professor, this time at the University of Amsterdam, the other university in Amsterdam, where a century ago L. E. J. Brouwer worked.