Charles Coffin Sims (April 14, 1937 – October 23, 2017J. J. O'Connor and E. F. Robertson
''Charles Sims biography''
MacTutor History of Mathematics archive. Accessed 2018-12-20.) was an American

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 ...

best known for his work in

group theory In abstract algebra, group theory studies the algebraic structures known as group (mathematics), groups. The concept of a group is central to abstract algebra: other well-known algebraic structures, such as ring (mathematics), rings, field ( ...

. Together with Donald G. Higman he discovered the Higman–Sims group, one of the

sporadic group In the mathematical classification of finite simple groups, there are a number of groups which do not fit into any infinite family. These are called the sporadic simple groups, or the sporadic finite groups, or just the sporadic groups. A simpl ...

s. The

permutation group In mathematics, a permutation group is a group ''G'' whose elements are permutations of a given set ''M'' and whose group operation is the composition of permutations in ''G'' (which are thought of as bijective functions from the set ''M'' to ...

software developed by Sims also led to the proof of existence of the Lyons group (also known as the Lyons–Sims group) and the

O'Nan group In the area of abstract algebra known as group theory, the O'Nan group ''O'N'' or O'Nan–Sims group is a sporadic simple group of order : 460,815,505,920 = 2934573111931 ≈ 5. History ''O'N'' is one of the 26 sporadic group ...

(also known as the O'Nan–Sims group). Sims was born and raised in

Elkhart, Indiana Elkhart ( ) is a city in Elkhart County, Indiana, United States. The population was 53,923 at the 2020 census. The city is located east of South Bend, Indiana. It is the most populous city in the Elkhart–Goshen metropolitan area, which in tu ...

, and received his B.S. from the

University of Michigan The University of Michigan (U-M, U of M, or Michigan) is a public university, public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest institution of higher education in the state. The University of Mi ...

. He did his graduate studies at

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

, where he was a student of John G. Thompson and received his Ph.D. degree in 1963. In his thesis, he enumerated ''p''-groups, giving sharp asymptotic upper and lower bounds. Sims is one of the founders of

computational group theory In mathematics, computational group theory is the study of group (mathematics), groups by means of computers. It is concerned with designing and analysing algorithms and data structures to compute information about groups. The subject has attracte ...

and is the

eponym An eponym is a noun after which or for which someone or something is, or is believed to be, named. Adjectives derived from the word ''eponym'' include ''eponymous'' and ''eponymic''. Eponyms are commonly used for time periods, places, innovati ...

of the

Schreier–Sims algorithm The Schreier–Sims algorithm is an algorithm in computational group theory, named after the mathematicians Otto Schreier and Charles Sims. This algorithm can find the order of a finite permutation group, determine whether a given permutati ...

. He was a faculty member at the Department of Mathematics at

Rutgers University Rutgers University ( ), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a Public university, public land-grant research university consisting of three campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's C ...

from 1965 to 2007. During that period he served, in particular, as Department Chair (1982–84) and Associate Provost for Computer Planning (1984–87). Sims retired from Rutgers in 2007 and moved to St. Petersburg, Florida. In 2012, he became a fellow of the

American Mathematical Society The American Mathematical Society (AMS) is an association of professional mathematicians dedicated to the interests of mathematical research and scholarship, and serves the national and international community through its publications, meetings, ...

.List of Fellows of the American Mathematical Society
retrieved 2013-07-20.

References

External links

*
Personal webpage
1937 births 2017 deaths 20th-century American mathematicians 21st-century American mathematicians Group theorists Computational group theory Harvard University alumni Rutgers University faculty Fellows of the American Mathematical Society Mathematicians from Indiana University of Michigan alumni People from Elkhart, Indiana {{US-mathematician-stub

See also

References

External links