Facts:   - doctoral students: chong-yun chao allen hatcher terry lawson roger w. richardson    - fields: mathematics    - death date: 22 september 2005    - workplaces: stanford university university of michigan    - doctoral advisor: heinz hopf ferdinand gonseth      - birth date: 03 march 1916    - name: hans samelson    - nationality: german american    - death place: palo alto , california    - birth place: strassburg    - alma mater: eth zürich   Based on these bullet points, write a short biography describing the life of hans samelson .
A:
hans samelson -lrb- 3 march 1916 -- 22 september 2005 -rrb- was a german american mathematician who worked in differential geometry , topology and the theory of lie groups and lie algebras -- important in describing the symmetry of analytical structures .