John L. Kelley was an American mathematician at the University of California, Berkeley, who worked in general topology and functional analysis.
John Kelley at Berkeley in 1968
Topology is the part of mathematics concerned with the properties of a geometric object that are preserved under continuous deformations, such as stretching, twisting, crumpling, and bending; that is, without closing holes, opening holes, tearing, gluing, or passing through itself.
Möbius strips, which have only one surface and one edge, are a kind of object studied in topology.
A continuous transformation can turn a coffee mug into a donut. Ceramic model by Keenan Crane and Henry Segerman.