Jeremy John Gray (born 25 April 1947) is an English
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 ...
primarily interested in the history of mathematics.
Biography
Gray studied mathematics at the
University of Oxford
The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...
from 1966 to 1969, and then at
Warwick University
The University of Warwick ( ; abbreviated as ''Warw.'' in post-nominal letters) is a public research university on the outskirts of Coventry between the West Midlands and Warwickshire, England. The university was founded in 1965 as part of a ...
, obtaining his PhD in 1980 under the supervision of
Ian Stewart and
David Fowler. He has worked at the
Open University
The Open University (OU) is a Public university, public research university and the largest university in the United Kingdom by List of universities in the United Kingdom by enrolment, number of students. The majority of the OU's undergraduate ...
since 1974, and became a lecturer there in 1978. He also lectured at the
University of Warwick
The University of Warwick ( ; abbreviated as ''Warw.'' in post-nominal letters) is a public research university on the outskirts of Coventry between the West Midlands and Warwickshire, England. The university was founded in 1965 as part of ...
from 2002 to 2017, teaching a course on the history of mathematics.
Gray was a consultant on the
television
Television (TV) is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. Additionally, the term can refer to a physical television set rather than the medium of transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, ...
series, ''
The Story of Maths'',
[''To Infinity and Beyond'' 27 October 2008 21:00 BBC Four] a co-production between the
Open University
The Open University (OU) is a Public university, public research university and the largest university in the United Kingdom by List of universities in the United Kingdom by enrolment, number of students. The majority of the OU's undergraduate ...
and the
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 ...
. He edits
Archive for History of Exact Sciences
''Archive for History of Exact Sciences'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal currently published bimonthly by Springer Science+Business Media, covering the history of mathematics and of astronomy observations and techniques, epistemology of scien ...
.
In 1998 he was an Invited Speaker of the
International Congress of Mathematicians
The International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM) is the largest conference for the topic of mathematics. It meets once every four years, hosted by the International Mathematical Union (IMU).
The Fields Medals, the IMU Abacus Medal (known before ...
in Berlin. 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, ...
.
Books
Gray has been awarded prizes for his contributions to mathematics, including the
Albert Leon Whiteman Memorial Prize __NOTOC__
The Albert Leon Whiteman Memorial Prize is awarded by the American Mathematical Society for notable exposition and exceptional scholarship in the history of mathematics.
The prize was endowed in 1998 with funds provided by Sally White ...
from 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, ...
in 2009, the Otto Neugebauer Prize of the
European Mathematical Society
The European Mathematical Society (EMS) is a European organization dedicated to the development of mathematics in Europe. Its members are different mathematical societies in Europe, academic institutions and individual mathematicians. The curren ...
in 2016, and the
London Mathematical Society
The London Mathematical Society (LMS) is one of the United Kingdom's Learned society, learned societies for mathematics (the others being the Royal Statistical Society (RSS), the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications (IMA), the Edinburgh ...
's
Hirst Prize and Lectureship The Hirst Prize and Lectureship is a biennial prize, jointly awarded by the London Mathematical Society (LMS) and the British Society for the History of Mathematics (BSHM). The prize recognises original and innovative contributions to the history of ...
in 2018.
He has authored the following:
* ''Ideas of space: Euclidean, non-Euclidean, and relativistic''. Oxford University Press 1979, 2nd edition 1989, Spanish edition, Ideas de Espacio, Mondadori Espana, 1992. Romanian edition, Idei Spatiu, Editura All Educational, 1998.
* ''Linear differential equations and group theory from Riemann to Poincaré'' Birkhäuser, 1986, 2nd edition with three new appendices and other additional material, 2000, Japanese edition 2002.
* ''The Geometrical Work of Girard Desargues'' (with
J. V. Field). Springer 1986.
* ''Geometry'' (with D.A. Brannan and M. Esplen). Cambridge University Press 1999, 2nd edition 2012, Arabic edition 2001.
''The Hilbert Challenge'' Oxford University Press 2000, French translation Le défi de Hilbert Dunod, 2003, Taiwanese translation 2003, Spanish translation El reto de Hilbert Critica, 2004.
* ''Janos Bolyai, non-Euclidean Geometry and the Nature of Space''. Burndy Library, MIT, 2004.
* ''Worlds out of Nothing; A Course on the History of Geometry in the 19th Century''. Springer 2006, 2nd revised edition 2010.
* ''Plato’s Ghost: The Modernist Transformation of Mathematics''. Princeton University Press 2008.
''Henri Poincaré: a scientific biography'' Princeton University Press 2012.
''Hidden Harmony – Geometric Fantasies. The Rise of Complex Function Theory''(with
Umberto Bottazzini). Springer 2013.
* ''The Real and the Complex: A History of Analysis in the 19th Century''. Springer 2015.
* ''A History of Abstract Algebra: From Algebraic Equations to Modern Algebra''. Springer 2018.
''Change and Variations: A History of Differential Equations to 1900'' Springer 2021.
Books edited or co-edited:
* ''The History of Mathematics; a Reader'' (with
John Fauvel). Macmillan 1987.
* ''L'Europe mathématique, Mathematical Europe'' (with
C. Goldstein and J. Ritter). Edited with an introductory essay, Éditions de la maison des sciences de l'homme, Paris 1996.
* ''Henri Poincaré: Three Supplementary Essays on the Discovery of Fuchsian Functions'' (with Scott Walter) Edited with an introductory essay, Akademie Verlag and Blanchard 1997.
''The symbolic universe: geometry and physics, 1890-1930'' Edited with an introduction and an essay, Oxford University Press 1999.
* ''Jacques Hadamard: Non-Euclidean Geometry in the Theory of Automorphic Functions'' (with Abe Shenitzer), translated Abe Shenitzer with an introductory essay by J.J. Gray, American and London Mathematical Societies Series in the History of Mathematics, HMath17, 1999.
''Mathematical Conversations; Selections from the Mathematical Intelligencer''(with
Robin Wilson) Springer 2000. There is also a Japanese edition.
''Gauss − Titan of Science'' A re-edition of
G. Waldo Dunnington's book of 1956, with a new introduction and appendices by J.J. Gray, Mathematical Association of America, 2003.
* The Architecture of Modern Mathematics. Edited volume, with an essay by J.J. Gray and one with the co-editor, José Ferreirós, Oxford University Press 2006.
* ''Episodes in the History of Modern Algebra 1800—1950''. Edited volume, with an introduction by J.J. Gray and the co-editor,
Karen Parshall, American and London Mathematical Societies Series in the History of Mathematics, HMath32, 2007.
He has also contributed to other books:
* ''
The Princeton Companion to Mathematics
''The Princeton Companion to Mathematics'' is a book providing an extensive overview of mathematics that was published in 2008 by Princeton University Press. Edited by Timothy Gowers with associate editors June Barrow-Green and Imre Leader, it ha ...
''
* ''The Oxford Handbook of the History of Mathematics''
* ''
Revolutions in Mathematics''
Notes
External links
*
Homepage of Jeremy Gray (old)Homepage of Jeremy Gray
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gray, Jeremy
Living people
20th-century English mathematicians
21st-century English mathematicians
British historians of mathematics
Academics of the University of Warwick
Fellows of the American Mathematical Society
1947 births
English male writers
Alumni of the University of Oxford
Alumni of the University of Warwick