Alexander Oppenheim

Sir Alexander Victor Oppenheim, OBE (February 4 1903–1997) was a mathematician, professor, human rights activist and humanist. Oppenheim traveled around the world living on every continent. Among his most notable contributions to mathematics include the Oppenheim conjecture and his contributions to ergodic theory. Oppenheim was a friend and worked with GH Hardy. Oppenheim's work and conjectures laid the foundation for a generation of work into diophantine approximation. Oppenheim's work was an early proponent to solving Hilbert's 10th problem, which eventually won Gregori Margulis the Fields Medal.

Early life

Oppenheim was born February 4, 1903 in Salford, England, his first language being Yiddish. Oppenheim was born into the Oppenheim Banking Family of German origin, and through the family's marriage, the Rothschild Family. He attended Manchester Grammar School. He graduated from Oxford University in 1927 where he met and befriended GH Hardy and was a Commonwealth Fellow at Princeton University. He later received a Ph. D. at University of Chicago in 1930 with his thesis, "Minima of Indefinite Quadratic Quaternary Forms". He later received a secondary doctorate in science (D.Sc.) from Oxford University. He travelled extensively throughout the world working as a professor, human rights activist and political advisor. While working in Singapore, he was captured by the Japanese during the Second World War and he and other allied prisoners of war were used as slave labour for the infamous Burmese 'Railroad of Death' where many perished. In keeping with intellect, he reflected some of his memories in his work, "The prisoner's walk: an exercise in number theory" which was not published until 1984.

Later life

After retiring, he was awarded an OBE and made officer of the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II for his contributions to mathematics and human rights. He was knighted in 1961. He also received the distinguished alumni medal from the University of Chicago

ee also

*Oppenheim conjecture

External links

* [http://www.lib.nus.edu.sg/nusbiodata/biovcOppenheim2.htm Biographical Summary]
* [http://www.numbertheory.org/obituaries/OTHERS/oppenheim.html An obituary]