Craige Schensted (), who formally changed his name to Ea Ea, was an American physicist and mathematician who first formulated the insertion algorithm that defines the

Robinson–Schensted correspondence In mathematics, the Robinson–Schensted correspondence is a bijective correspondence between permutations and pairs of standard Young tableaux of the same shape. It has various descriptions, all of which are of algorithmic nature, it has many remar ...

. Under a different form, that correspondence had earlier been described by

Gilbert de Beauregard Robinson Gilbert de Beauregard Robinson, MBE (3 June 1906 – 8 April 1992) was a Canadian mathematician most famous for his work on combinatorics and representation theory of the symmetric groups, including the Robinson-Schensted algorithm. Biography Gi ...

in 1938, but it is due to the Schensted insertion algorithm that the correspondence has become widely known in

combinatorics Combinatorics is an area of mathematics primarily concerned with counting, both as a means and as an end to obtaining results, and certain properties of finite structures. It is closely related to many other areas of mathematics and has many ...

. Schensted also designed several board games including *Star,

Star A star is a luminous spheroid of plasma (physics), plasma held together by Self-gravitation, self-gravity. The List of nearest stars and brown dwarfs, nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked eye at night sk ...

, and Y. In 1995, he changed his name to Ea, the Babylonian name for the Sumerian god

Enki Enki ( ) is the Sumerian god of water, knowledge ('' gestú''), crafts (''gašam''), and creation (''nudimmud''), and one of the Anunnaki. He was later known as Ea () or Ae p. 324, note 27. in Akkadian (Assyrian-Babylonian) religion, and ...

, interested in the god's creative and empathetic nature. This became Ea Ea in 1999, in anticipation of the millenium computer glitches. He lived for forty years on

Peaks Island Peaks Island is the most populous island in Casco Bay, Maine. It is part of the city of Portland and about from downtown. The island is served by Casco Bay Lines and has its own elementary school, library, and police station. It is the only ...

Portland, Maine Portland is the List of municipalities in Maine, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maine and the county seat, seat of Cumberland County, Maine, Cumberland County. Portland's population was 68,408 at the 2020 census. The Portland metropolit ...

References

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External links

Home page
of Ea Ea, formerly Craige Schensted

of Ea Ea

of Ea Ea American board game designers Year of birth missing (living people) 20th-century American mathematicians 21st-century American mathematicians People from Portland, Maine 2021 deaths 1927 births {{Mathematician-stub