Richard Neil Lyons (born January 22, 1945, in
New York City
New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
,
New York) is an American mathematician, specializing in finite group theory.
Lyons received his PhD in 1970 at the
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...
under
John Griggs Thompson with a thesis entitled ''Characterizations of Some Finite Simple Groups with Small 2-Rank''. From 1972 to 2017, he was a professor 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 ...
.
With
Daniel Gorenstein and
he wrote, and is continuing to write, now with
Inna Capdeboscq, a series on the second-generation proof of the
classification program for finite simple groups. Ten volumes of this series have been published so far. He discovered a
sporadic group which
Charles Sims constructed and called the
Lyons group ''Ly''.
In 2012, he shared the
Leroy P. Steele Prize for Mathematical Exposition, awarded by the American Mathematical Society, with
Michael Aschbacher, Stephen D. Smith, and Ronald Solomon.
In 2013, he became a
fellow
A fellow is a title and form of address for distinguished, learned, or skilled individuals in academia, medicine, research, and industry. The exact meaning of the term differs in each field. In learned society, learned or professional society, p ...
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 contributions to the classification of the finite simple groups, including the discovery of one of the 26 sporadic finite simple groups.".
List of Fellows of the American Mathematical Society
/ref>
Works
* with Gorenstein: ''The local structure of finite groups of characteristic 2 type'', American Mathematical Society, 1983
* with Daniel Gorenstein, Ronald Solomon: ''The classification of the finite simple groups'', American Mathematical Society, 10 Vols., 1994–2023
* with Michael Aschbacher, Stephen D. Smith, Ronald Solomon: ''The classification of finite simple groups: Groups of characteristic 2 type'', American Mathematical Society, 2011
References
External links
Homepage
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lyons, Richard
20th-century American mathematicians
21st-century American mathematicians
1945 births
Group theorists
University of Chicago alumni
Rutgers University faculty
Living people
Fellows of the American Mathematical Society