Simon P. Norton
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Simon Phillips Norton (28 February 1952 – 13 February 2019) was a mathematician in
Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...
, England, who worked on finite
simple group SIMPLE Group Limited is a conglomeration of separately run companies that each has its core area in International Consulting. The core business areas are Legal Services, Fiduciary Activities, Banking Intermediation and Corporate Service. The d ...
s.


Education

Simon Norton was born into a
Sephardi Sephardic Jews, also known as Sephardi Jews or Sephardim, and rarely as Iberian Peninsular Jews, are a Jewish diaspora population associated with the historic Jewish communities of the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal) and their descendant ...
family of Iraqi descent, the youngest of three brothers. From 1964 he was a
King's Scholar A King's Scholar, abbreviated KS in the United Kingdom, is the recipient of a scholarship from a foundation created by, or under the auspices of, a British monarch. The scholarships are awarded at certain Public school (United Kingdom), public ...
at
Eton College Eton College ( ) is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school providing boarding school, boarding education for boys aged 13–18, in the small town of Eton, Berkshire, Eton, in Berkshire, in the United Kingdom. It has educated Prime Mini ...
, where he earned a reputation as an eccentric mathematical genius and was taught by
Norman Routledge Norman Arthur Routledge (7 March 1928 – 27 April 2013) was a British people, British mathematician and schoolteacher. He was a personal friend of fellow mathematician Alan Turing (1912–1954). Life and career Norman Routledge was born near ...
. He obtained an external first-class degree in Pure Mathematics at the University of London while still at the school, commuting to
Royal Holloway College Royal Holloway, University of London (RH), formally incorporated as Royal Holloway and Bedford New College, is a public research university and a member institution of the federal University of London. It has six schools, 21 academic departmen ...
. He also represented the United Kingdom at the
International Mathematical Olympiad The International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) is a mathematical olympiad for pre-university students, and is the oldest of the International Science Olympiads. It is widely regarded as the most prestigious mathematical competition in the wor ...
thrice consecutively starting from 1967, winning a gold medal each time and two special prizes in 1967 and 1969. He then went up to
Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any ...
, and achieved a first in the final examinations.


Career and life

He stayed at Cambridge, working on
finite group In abstract algebra, a finite group is a group whose underlying set is finite. Finite groups often arise when considering symmetry of mathematical or physical objects, when those objects admit just a finite number of structure-preserving tra ...
s. Norton was one of the authors of the
ATLAS of Finite Groups The ''ATLAS of Finite Groups'', often simply known as the ''ATLAS'', is a group theory book by John Horton Conway, Robert Turner Curtis, Simon Phillips Norton, Richard Alan Parker and Robert Arnott Wilson (with computational assistance from ...
. He constructed the
Harada–Norton group In the area of modern algebra known as group theory, the Harada–Norton group ''HN'' is a sporadic simple group of order :   273,030,912,000,000 : = 214365671119 : ≈ 3. History and properties ''HN'' is one of the 26 sporadic gr ...
and in 1979, together with
John Conway John Horton Conway (26 December 1937 – 11 April 2020) was an English mathematician. He was active in the theory of finite groups, knot theory, number theory, combinatorial game theory and coding theory. He also made contributions to many br ...
proved there is a connection between the
Monster group In the area of abstract algebra known as group theory, the monster group M (also known as the Fischer–Griess monster, or the friendly giant) is the largest sporadic simple group; it has order :    : = 2463205976112133171923293 ...
and the ''j''-function in number theory. They dubbed this "
monstrous moonshine In mathematics, monstrous moonshine, or moonshine theory, is the unexpected connection between the monster group ''M'' and modular functions, in particular the ''j'' function. The initial numerical observation was made by John McKay in 1978, ...
", and made some conjectures later proved by
Richard Borcherds Richard Ewen Borcherds (; born 29 November 1959) is a British mathematician currently working in quantum field theory. He is known for his work in lattices, group theory, and infinite-dimensional algebras,James Lepowsky"The Work of Richard Borch ...
. Norton also made several early discoveries in
Conway's Game of Life The Game of Life, also known as Conway's Game of Life or simply Life, is a cellular automaton devised by the British mathematician John Horton Conway in 1970. It is a zero-player game, meaning that its evolution is determined by its initial ...
, and invented the game Snort. In 1985, Cambridge University did not renew his contract. Norton is the subject of the biography ''The Genius in My Basement'', written by his Cambridge tenant,
Alexander Masters Alexander Wright Masters is an English author, screenwriter, and worker with the homeless. He lives in Cambridge, United Kingdom. Masters is the son of authors Dexter Masters and Joan Brady. He was educated at Bedales School, and took a first ...
, which describes his eccentric lifestyle and his life-long obsession with buses. He was also an occasional contributor to '' Word Ways: The Journal of Recreational Linguistics''. Norton was very interested in transport issues and was a member of Subterranea Britannica. He coordinated the local group of the
Campaign for Better Transport (United Kingdom) Campaign for Better Transport is an advocacy group in the United Kingdom that promotes sustainable transport, particularly bus and rail services. It was launched as Transport 2000 in February 1973 by the National Union of Railwaymen with the Ra ...
, and had done so since the organisation was known as Transport 2000, writing most of the newsletter for the local Cambridge group and tirelessly campaigning for efficient, inclusive and environmentally friendly public transport in the region and across the United Kingdom. He collapsed and died in north London, aged 66, of a heart condition on 13 February 2019.


Selected publications

* * * * * *


References


External links

* *
Simon Norton
at the Cambridge mathematics department *
Feature profile on National Public Radio's Weekend Edition Sunday, 02/26/12 ''The Genius In My Basement''

Cambridgeshire Campaign for Better Transport (Archive)
coordinated by Simon Norton, who authored the bulk of the newsletters and reports. 1952 births 2019 deaths British people of Iraqi-Jewish descent People educated at Eton College Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge 20th-century English mathematicians 21st-century English mathematicians Group theorists Cellular automatists International Mathematical Olympiad participants Cambridge mathematicians {{UK-mathematician-stub