Henry C. Wente

Henry Christian Wente (August 18, 1936 – January 20, 2020) was an American mathematician, known for his 1986 discovery of the Wente torus, an immersed constant-mean-curvature surface whose existence disproved a conjecture of Heinz Hopf.

Wente obtained both his bachelor's degree and his Ph.D. from Harvard University. He completed his doctorate in 1966, under the supervision of Garrett Birkhoff. He was a distinguished professor emeritus of mathematics at the University of Toledo, which he joined in 1971. In 2012 he became a fellow of the American Mathematical Society.