Philip Hall
FRS (11 April 1904 – 30 December 1982), was 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 ...
. His major work was on
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 ( ...
, notably 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 and
solvable group
In mathematics, more specifically in the field of group theory, a solvable group or soluble group is a group that can be constructed from abelian groups using extensions. Equivalently, a solvable group is a group whose derived series terminat ...
s.
Biography
He was educated first at
Christ's Hospital
Christ's Hospital is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school (English Private schools in the United Kingdom, fee-charging boarding school for pupils aged 11–18) with a royal charter, located to the south of Horsham in West Sussex.
T ...
, where he won the Thompson Gold Medal for mathematics, and later at
King's College, Cambridge
King's College, formally The King's College of Our Lady and Saint Nicholas in Cambridge, is a List of colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college lies beside the River Cam and faces ...
. He was elected a
Fellow of the Royal Society
Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the Fellows of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural science, natural knowledge, incl ...
in 1951 and awarded its
Sylvester Medal
The Sylvester Medal is a bronze medal awarded by the Royal Society for the encouragement of mathematical research, and accompanied by a £1,000 prize. It was named in honour of James Joseph Sylvester, the Savilian chair of geometry, Savilian Prof ...
in 1961. He was President of 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 ...
from 1955–1957, and was awarded its
Berwick Prize in 1958 and
De Morgan Medal
The De Morgan Medal is a prize for outstanding contribution to mathematics, awarded by the London Mathematical Society. The Society's most prestigious award, it is given in memory of Augustus De Morgan, who was the first President of the society ...
in 1965.
Publications
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See also
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Abstract clone
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Commutator collecting process
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Isoclinism of groups
*
Regular p-group
In mathematical finite group theory, the concept of regular ''p''-group captures some of the more important properties of abelian ''p''-groups, but is general enough to include most "small" ''p''-groups. Regular ''p''-groups were introduced by . ...
*
Three subgroups lemma
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Hall algebra, and Hall polynomials
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Hall subgroup
In mathematics, specifically group theory, a Hall subgroup of a finite group ''G'' is a subgroup whose order is coprime to its index. They were introduced by the group theorist .
Definitions
A Hall divisor (also called a unitary divisor) of a ...
*
Hall–Higman theorem
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Hall–Littlewood polynomial
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Hall's universal group
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Hall's marriage theorem
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Hall word
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Hall–Witt identity
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Irwin–Hall distribution
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Zappa–Szép product
References
1904 births
1982 deaths
20th-century English mathematicians
Algebraists
Group theorists
People educated at Christ's Hospital
Alumni of King's College, Cambridge
Fellows of the Royal Society
Bletchley Park people
Presidents of the London Mathematical Society
Sadleirian Professors of Pure Mathematics
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