J. A. Todd

Infobox_Scientist | name = John Arthur Todd |

caption = | birth_date = birth date|1908|8|23|df=y | birth_place = Liverpool, England | residence = UK | nationality = English | death_date = death date and age|1994|12|22|1908|8|23|df=y | death_place = Croydon, England | field = Mathematician | erdos_number = 7 | work_university = University of Manchester,University of Cambridge | alma_mater = University of Cambridge | doctoral_advisor = H.F. Baker | doctoral_students = Roger Penrose | known_for = Todd class, Todd-Coxeter process | societies = Fellow of the Royal Society | prizes = Smith Prize, Rockefeller Fellowship | spouse = | children = None | religion = | handedness = | website = | footnotes =

John Arthur Todd (23 August 1908 - 22 December 1994) was a British geometer. He was born in Liverpool, and went to Trinity College of the University of Cambridge in 1925. He did research under H.F. Baker, and in 1931 took a position at the University of Manchester. He became a lecturer at Cambridge in 1937. He remained at Cambridge for the rest of his working life. [cite journal
last = Atiyah
first = M. F.
title = John Arthur Todd (Obituary)
journal = Bull. London Math. Soc.
volume = 30
pages = 305-316
date = 1998
url = http://journals.cambridge.org/production/action/cjoGetFulltext?fulltextid=19088
accessdate = ]

The Todd class in the theory of the higher-dimensional Riemann-Roch theorem is an example of a characteristic class (or, more accurately, a reciprocal of one) that was discovered by Todd in work published in 1937. It used the methods of the Italian school of algebraic geometry. The Todd-Coxeter process for coset enumeration is a major method of computational algebra, and dates from a collaboration with H.S.M. Coxeter in 1936. In 1953 he and Coxeter discovered the Coxeter-Todd lattice. In 1954 he and G. C. Shephard classified the finite complex reflection groups.

References

Persondata
NAME= Todd, John Arthur
ALTERNATIVE NAMES=
SHORT DESCRIPTION= English Mathematician
DATE OF BIRTH= 23 August 1908
PLACE OF BIRTH= Liverpool, England
DATE OF DEATH= 22 December 1994
PLACE OF DEATH= Croydon, England