Mark Andrew Ronan (born 1947) is Emeritus Professor of Mathematics at the

University of Illinois at Chicago The University of Illinois Chicago (UIC) is a public research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its campus is in the Near West Side community area, adjacent to the Chicago Loop. The second campus established under the Universi ...

and Honorary Professor of Mathematics at

University College London University College London (Trade name, branded as UCL) is a Public university, public research university in London, England. It is a Member institutions of the University of London, member institution of the Federal university, federal Uni ...

. He has lived and taught in: Germany (at the University of Braunschweig and the

Free University of Berlin The Free University of Berlin (, often abbreviated as FU Berlin or simply FU) is a public university, public research university in Berlin, Germany. It was founded in West Berlin in 1948 with American support during the early Cold War period a ...

); in England, where from 1989 to 1992 he was Mason Professor of Mathematics at the

University of Birmingham The University of Birmingham (informally Birmingham University) is a Public university, public research university in Birmingham, England. It received its royal charter in 1900 as a successor to Queen's College, Birmingham (founded in 1825 as ...

; and America at the

, where his teaching included courses on ancient literature from

Mesopotamia Mesopotamia is a historical region of West Asia situated within the Tigris–Euphrates river system, in the northern part of the Fertile Crescent. Today, Mesopotamia is known as present-day Iraq and forms the eastern geographic boundary of ...

, and on the history of the calendar, as well as mathematics. In addition to his research papers, Ronan's popular account of the quest to discover and classify all the finite building blocks for symmetry (the finite simple groups) was published in 2006. In 2008 it formed the basis for a series of

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

radio broadcasts. In his research work he is an expert on the theory of

buildings A building or edifice is an enclosed structure with a roof, walls and windows, usually standing permanently in one place, such as a house or factory. Buildings come in a variety of sizes, shapes, and functions, and have been adapted throughout ...

, with a standard text on the subject, now being reissued in paperback. Apart from his professional work, he has acted in many operas at the

Lyric Opera of Chicago Lyric Opera of Chicago is an American opera company based in Chicago, Illinois. The company was founded in Chicago in 1954, under the name 'Lyric Theatre of Chicago' by Carol Fox (Chicago opera), Carol Fox, Nicola Rescigno and Lawrence Kelly, w ...

, danced in the Nutcracker, and maintains a blog on opera, ballet and theatre reviews.

Bibliography

''Lectures on Buildings'', original edition, Academic Press 1989; paperback edition, updated and revised, University of Chicago Press 2009. ''Symmetry and the Monster'', Oxford University Press 2006.

References

External links

Mark Ronan's HomepageMark Ronan's Theatre Reviews
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ronan, Mark 20th-century British mathematicians 21st-century British mathematicians 20th-century American mathematicians 21st-century American mathematicians Group theorists Academics of University College London University of Illinois Chicago faculty Living people Academic staff of TU Braunschweig 1947 births