Author of the influential 1932 book The Foundations of Point Set Topology, Robert Lee Moore was a pioneer in that area of mathematics. He was a lifelong mathematics teacher and professor, as well as a fixture in the American Mathematical Society (AMS).

Moore was born in Dallas, Texas on November 14, 1882. He began his college career at the University of Texas in 1898 and received a bachelor of sciences in 1901, after which he was appointed a fellow at the school. During the 1902-1903 school year, Moore taught high school mathematics in the town of Marshall, Texas, but later in 1903 he returned his attention to his academic career and entered the University of Chicago. He emerged with a PhD in 1905, having written his thesis on sets of metrical hypotheses for geometry.

From 1905 to 1906, Moore worked at the University of Tennessee as an assistant professor in the Mathematics Department, then moving to New...