Robert Vaughan Moody, (; born November 28, 1941) is a Canadian

mathematician A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, mathematical structure, structure, space, Mathematica ...

. He is the co-discoverer of Kac–Moody algebra, a

Lie algebra In mathematics, a Lie algebra (pronounced ) is a vector space \mathfrak g together with an operation called the Lie bracket, an alternating bilinear map \mathfrak g \times \mathfrak g \rightarrow \mathfrak g, that satisfies the Jacobi ident ...

, usually infinite-dimensional, that can be defined through a generalized

root system In mathematics, a root system is a configuration of vector space, vectors in a Euclidean space satisfying certain geometrical properties. The concept is fundamental in the theory of Lie groups and Lie algebras, especially the classification and ...

. "Almost simultaneously in 1967,

Victor Kac Victor Gershevich (Grigorievich) Kac (; born 19 December 1943) is a Soviet and American mathematician at MIT, known for his work in representation theory. He co-discovered Kac–Moody algebras, and used the Weyl–Kac character formula for th ...

in the USSR and Robert Moody in Canada developed what was to become Kac–Moody algebra. Kac and Moody noticed that if

Wilhelm Killing Wilhelm Karl Joseph Killing (10 May 1847 – 11 February 1923) was a German mathematician who made important contributions to the theories of Lie algebras, Lie groups, and non-Euclidean geometry. Life Killing studied at the University of M ...

's conditions were relaxed, it was still possible to associate to the Cartan matrix a Lie algebra which, necessarily, would be infinite dimensional." - A. J. Coleman Born in Great Britain, he received a

Bachelor of Arts A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...

in Mathematics in 1962 from the University of Saskatchewan, a

Master of Arts A Master of Arts ( or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA or AM) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Those admitted to the degree have ...

in Mathematics in 1964 from the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public university, public research university whose main campus is located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park (Toronto), Queen's Park in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was founded by ...

, and a Ph.D. in Mathematics in 1966 from the University of Toronto. In 1966, he joined the Department of Mathematics as an assistant professor in the University of Saskatchewan. In 1970, he was appointed an associate professor and a professor in 1976. In 1989, he joined the

University of Alberta The University of Alberta (also known as U of A or UAlberta, ) is a public research university located in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. It was founded in 1908 by Alexander Cameron Rutherford, the first premier of Alberta, and Henry Marshall Tory, t ...

as a professor in the Department of Mathematics. In 1999, he was made an Officer of the

Order of Canada The Order of Canada () is a Canadian state order, national order and the second-highest Award, honour for merit in the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, after the Order of Merit. To coincide with the Canadian Centennial, ce ...

. In 1980, he was made a fellow of the

Royal Society of Canada The Royal Society of Canada (RSC; , SRC), also known as the Academies of Arts, Humanities, and Sciences of Canada (French: ''Académies des arts, des lettres et des sciences du Canada''), is the senior national, bilingual council of distinguishe ...

. In 1996 Moody and Kac were co-winners of the

Wigner Medal The International Colloquium on Group Theoretical Methods in Physics (ICGTMP) is an academic conference devoted to applications of group theory to physics. It was founded in 1972 by Henri Bacry and Aloysio Janner. It hosts a colloquium every tw ...

Selected works

* * *with S. Berman: *with J. Patera: *with Bremner & Patera: ''Tables of weight space multiplicities'', Marcel Dekker 1983 *with A. Pianzola: *with S. Kass, J. Patera, & R. Slansky: ''Affine Lie Algebras, weight multiplicities and branching rules'', 2 vols., University of California Press 199
vol. 1 books.google
*with Pianzola: ''Lie algebras with triangular decompositions'', Canadian Mathematical Society Series, John Wiley 1995 *with Baake & Grimm: ''Die verborgene Ordnung der Quasikristalle'', Spektrum, Feb. 2002
''What is Aperiodic Order?'', Eng. trans. on arxiv.org

Notes

References

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Moody, Robert 1941 births Living people British emigrants to Canada Canadian mathematicians Fellows of the Royal Society of Canada Officers of the Order of Canada University of Toronto alumni Academic staff of the University of Alberta Academic staff of the University of Saskatchewan University of Saskatchewan alumni