Graham Higman

{{Infobox scientist

|name = Graham Higman

|image = File:Graham Higman.jpg

|birth_name = Graham Higman

|birth_date = {{birth date|df=y|1917|01|19}}

|birth_place = Louth, Lincolnshire, England

|death_date = {{death date and age|df=y|2008|04|08| 1917|01|19}}

|death_place = Oxford, England

|citizenship = United Kingdom

|field = Mathematics, Group theory

|workplaces = University of Oxford

|doctoral_advisor = J. H. C. Whitehead

|doctoral_students = {{plainlist|1=

}}

|alma_mater = Balliol College, Oxford

|known_for = {{no wrap|Higman group
Higman's embedding theorem
Higman's lemma
HNN extension
Higman–Sims group
Hall–Higman theorem}}

|prizes = {{no wrap|Senior Berwick Prize (1962)
LMS De Morgan Medal (1974)
Sylvester Medal (1979)}}

|religion =

}}

Graham Higman FRS{{Cite journal |last=Conder |first=Marston D. E. |date=2022 |title=Graham Higman. 19 January 1917—8 April 2008 |url=https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsbm.2022.0002 |journal=Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society |volume=73|pages=277–290 |doi=10.1098/rsbm.2022.0002 |s2cid=250093355 |doi-access=free }} (19 January 1917 – 8 April 2008) was a prominent English mathematician known for his contributions to group theory.

Biography

Higman was born in Louth, Lincolnshire, and attended Sutton High School, Plymouth, winning a scholarship to Balliol College, Oxford.{{cite web| last = Collins| first = Michael| title = Professor Graham Higman: Leading group theorist| work = Obituaries| publisher = The Independent| date = 2008-05-08| url = https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/professor-graham-higman-leading-group-theorist-822756.html| access-date =2008-10-14 }} In 1939 he co-founded The Invariant Society, the student mathematics society,The Early History of the Invariant Society by Robin Wilson, printed in The Invariant (2010), Ben Hoskin and earned his DPhil from the University of Oxford in 1941. His thesis, The units of group-rings, was written under the direction of J. H. C. Whitehead.

From 1960 to 1984 he was the Waynflete Professor of Pure Mathematics at Magdalen College, Oxford.

Higman was awarded the Senior Berwick Prize in 1962 and the De Morgan Medal of the London Mathematical Society in 1974. He was the founder of the Journal of Algebra and its editor from 1964 to 1984. Higman had 51 D.Phil. students, including Jonathan Lazare Alperin, Rosemary A. Bailey, Marston Conder, John Mackintosh Howie, and Peter M. Neumann.

He was also a local preacher in the Oxford Circuit of the Methodist Church. During the Second World War he was a conscientious objector, working at the Meteorological Office in Northern Ireland and Gibraltar.

He died in Oxford.

Publications

{{cite journal|first=Graham|last= Higman |year=1940|title=The units of group-rings|journal=Proceedings of the London Mathematical Society|series= (2)|volume= 46|pages= 231–248|doi= 10.1112/plms/s2-46.1.231 }}
{{cite journal|first1=Walter|last1=Feit|author1-link=Walter Feit|first2=Graham|last2= Higman |year=1964|title=The nonexistence of certain generalized polygons|journal=Journal of Algebra|volume= 1|issue=2|pages= 114–131|doi=10.1016/0021-8693(64)90028-6|doi-access=free}}
Graham Higman (1966) Odd characterisations of finite simple groups, U. of Michigan Press
*{{Citation | author=Graham Higman | title=Finitely presented infinite simple groups | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LPvuAAAAMAAJ | publisher=Department of Pure Mathematics, Department of Mathematics, I.A.S. Australian National University, Canberra | series=Notes on Pure Mathematics | isbn=978-0-7081-0300-5 |mr=0376874 | year=1974 | volume=8}}
Graham Higman and Elizabeth Scott (1988), Existentially closed groups, LMS Monographs, Clarendon Press, Oxford{{cite journal|author=Hickin, Kenneth|title=Review: Existentially closed groups by Graham Higman and Elizabeth Scott|journal=Bull. Amer. Math. Soc. (N.S.)|year=1990|volume=23|issue=1|pages=242–249|url=https://www.ams.org/journals/bull/1990-23-01/S0273-0979-1990-15943-9/S0273-0979-1990-15943-9.pdf|doi=10.1090/s0273-0979-1990-15943-9|doi-access=free}}

Notes

References

{{YouTube|gCuVT12f6Y8|Interview}}
[http://www.ox.ac.uk/gazette/2007-8/weekly/170408/coll.htm#3Ref Death notice, Oxford University Gazette, 17 April 2008] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080424065958/http://www.ox.ac.uk/gazette/2007-8/weekly/170408/coll.htm#3Ref |date=24 April 2008 }}