Paul Trevier Bateman (June 6, 1919 – December 26, 2012) was an American

number theorist A number is a mathematical object used to count, measure, and label. The most basic examples are the natural numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, and so forth. Numbers can be represented in language with number words. More universally, individual numbers can ...

, known for formulating the

Bateman–Horn conjecture In number theory, the Bateman–Horn conjecture is a statement concerning the frequency of prime numbers among the values of a system of polynomials, named after mathematicians Paul T. Bateman and Roger A. Horn who proposed it in 1962. It provide ...

on the density of

prime number A prime number (or a prime) is a natural number greater than 1 that is not a Product (mathematics), product of two smaller natural numbers. A natural number greater than 1 that is not prime is called a composite number. For example, 5 is prime ...

values generated by systems of

polynomial In mathematics, a polynomial is a Expression (mathematics), mathematical expression consisting of indeterminate (variable), indeterminates (also called variable (mathematics), variables) and coefficients, that involves only the operations of addit ...

s and the

New Mersenne conjecture In mathematics, the Mersenne conjectures concern the characterization of a kind of prime numbers called Mersenne primes, meaning prime numbers that are a power of two minus one. Original Mersenne conjecture The original, called Mersenne's conjec ...

relating the occurrences of

Mersenne prime In mathematics, a Mersenne prime is a prime number that is one less than a power of two. That is, it is a prime number of the form for some integer . They are named after Marin Mersenne, a French Minim friar, who studied them in the early 1 ...

s and

Wagstaff prime In number theory, a Wagstaff prime is a prime number of the form : where ''p'' is an odd prime. Wagstaff primes are named after the mathematician Samuel S. Wagstaff Jr.; the prime pages credit François Morain for naming them in a lecture at th ...

s. Born in

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

, Bateman received his Ph.D. from the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of f ...

in 1946, under the supervision of

Hans Rademacher Hans Adolph Rademacher (; 3 April 1892 – 7 February 1969) was a German-born American mathematician, known for work in mathematical analysis and number theory. Biography Rademacher received his Ph.D. in 1916 from Georg-August-Universität Göt ...

. After temporary positions at

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...

and the

Institute for Advanced Study The Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) is an independent center for theoretical research and intellectual inquiry located in Princeton, New Jersey. It has served as the academic home of internationally preeminent scholars, including Albert Ein ...

, he joined in 1950 the mathematics department at the

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC, U of I, Illinois, or University of Illinois) is a public land-grant research university in the Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area, Illinois, United States. Established in 1867, it is the f ...

, where he was department chair for 15 years and was subsequently an

emeritus professor ''Emeritus/Emerita'' () is an honorary title granted to someone who retires from a position of distinction, most commonly an academic faculty position, but is allowed to continue using the previous title, as in "professor emeritus". In some c ...

. He was the

doctoral advisor A doctoral advisor (also dissertation director, dissertation advisor; or doctoral supervisor) is a member of a university faculty whose role is to guide graduate students who are candidates for a doctorate, helping them select coursework, as well ...

of 20 students, including

Marvin Knopp Marvin Isadore Knopp (January 4, 1933 – December 24, 2011) was an American mathematician who worked primarily in number theory. He made notable contributions to the theory of modular forms. Life and education Knopp was born on January 4, 193 ...

, Kevin McCurley, George B. Purdy, and Claudia Spiro. Bateman was a member 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, ...

for 71 years. He served as an associate secretary for 16 years, a member of the board of trustees for 4 years, and a member of the

Mathematical Reviews ''Mathematical Reviews'' is a journal published by the American Mathematical Society (AMS) that contains brief synopses, and in some cases evaluations, of many articles in mathematics, statistics, and theoretical computer science. The AMS also pu ...

Committee for 5 years.

Textbooks

Bateman was a coauthor of ''Analytic Number Theory: An Introductory Course''. He was also a contributor to the second edition of the textbook ''Elementary Number Theory'', a translation into English of

Edmund Landau Edmund Georg Hermann Landau (14 February 1877 – 19 February 1938) was a German mathematician who worked in the fields of number theory and complex analysis. Biography Edmund Landau was born to a Jewish family in Berlin. His father was Leopo ...

German language German (, ) is a West Germanic language in the Indo-European language family, mainly spoken in Western Europe, Western and Central Europe. It is the majority and Official language, official (or co-official) language in Germany, Austria, Switze ...

text ''Elementare Zahlentheorie''.

Personal information

Bateman attended Upper Moreland High School, which recognized his accomplishments by inducting him into its Hall of Fame in 1999. He was department head at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign for 15 years, and had a flair for the dramatic, which led to his being called

P. T. Barnum Phineas Taylor Barnum (July 5, 1810 – April 7, 1891) was an American showman, businessman, and politician remembered for promoting celebrated hoaxes and founding with James Anthony Bailey the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. He was ...

. In the Christmas skit one year the students had a character called

Batman Batman is a superhero who appears in American comic books published by DC Comics. Batman was created by the artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger, and debuted in Detective Comics 27, the 27th issue of the comic book ''Detective Comics'' on M ...

, with aluminum foil on his head to simulate baldness. Not to be outdone, at the following year's skit Bateman himself appeared in a Batman costume. As department head, Bateman was a great believer in the ''committee of one'' because it made committee meetings unnecessary. Ph.D. candidates had to pass an oral exam in either German, Russian or French. It happened that Philippe Tondeur was fluent in those three languages, and so Bateman gave him the job of examining all the candidates. Bateman served as Problems editor of ''

The American Mathematical Monthly ''The American Mathematical Monthly'' is a peer-reviewed scientific journal of mathematics. It was established by Benjamin Finkel in 1894 and is published by Taylor & Francis on behalf of the Mathematical Association of America. It is an exposito ...

'' from 1986 to 1991. His first act was to solve all the problems in the backlog. He visited the

three times.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bateman, Paul T. 20th-century American mathematicians 21st-century American mathematicians American number theorists University of Pennsylvania alumni University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign faculty Institute for Advanced Study visiting scholars 1919 births 2012 deaths Mathematicians from Philadelphia