comm-nemmers.qxp 7/9/98 3:31 PM Page 983

John H. Conway Receives Nemmers Prize

JOHN H. CONWAY, von Neumann Professor of Math- Conway was edu- ematics at Princeton University, has been awarded cated at Cambridge the 1997–98 Frederic Esser Nemmers Prize in Math- University and ematics from Northwestern University. served as a profes- The Nemmers Prize in Mathematics is awarded sor of mathematics to scholars who display “outstanding achievement there prior to joining in their discipline as demonstrated by major con- Princeton in 1986. tributions to new knowledge or the development He is a Fellow of the of significant new modes of analysis.” The prize Royal Society and re- carries a $100,000 stipend and is presented every ceived the Pólya other year to a scholar who displays work of last- Prize of the London ing significance in mathematics. Mathematical Soci- ety.

In connection with the receipt of the award, Photograph by Robert P. Matthews, courtesy of Princeton University. Northwestern Conway will spend a period of residence at North- John H. Conway western, during which he will present a public lec- University awards ture and interact with students and members of Nemmers Prizes in the faculty. mathematics and in economics. The 1997–98 Erwin E. Nemmers Prize in Economics was presented to Conway, one of the preeminent theorists in the Robert J. Aumann. Initiated in 1994, the prizes study of finite groups and one of the world’s fore- were made possible through bequests from the late most knot theorists, is the author of more than 10 Erwin E. Nemmers, a former member of the North- books and more than 130 journal articles on a western University faculty, and his brother, the wide variety of mathematical subjects. He has also late Frederic E. Nemmers, both of Milwaukee, Wis- done important work in number theory, game the- consin. The 1998 selection committees were com- ory, coding theory, tiling, and the creation of new posed of faculty members from the University of number systems. The system of “Surreal Num- California at Berkeley, Harvard University, Massa- bers”, which he invented, is the subject of a pop- chusetts Institute of Technology, Yale University, ular book by computer scientist Donald Knuth. and Northwestern. Conway is also widely known as the inventor of Previous recipients of the Frederic Esser Nem- the “Game of Life”, a computer simulation of sim- mers Prize in Mathematics are Yuri I. Manin (1994) ple cellular “life”, governed by simple rules which and Joseph B. Keller (1996). give rise to amazingly complex behavior. It was pop- Consistent with the terms of the Nemmers’ be- ularized by Martin Gardner’s columns in Scientific quests, past recipients of the Nobel Prize and cur- American in the early 1970s and has had a large rent or former full-time members of the North- number of devotees ever since. Conway may well western University faculty are ineligible for a have the distinction of having more books, articles, Nemmers Prize. and Web pages devoted to his creations than any other living mathematician. —from Northwestern University news release

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