Arran Fernandez

Last updated

Arran Fernandez
BornJune 1995 (age 28–29)
United Kingdom
Education Home-educated
Alma mater University of Cambridge
Scientific career
Institutions Eastern Mediterranean University
Thesis Analysis in Fractional Calculus and Asymptotics Related to Zeta Functions  (2018)
Doctoral advisor Athanassios S. Fokas

Arran Fernandez (born June 1995) is a British mathematician who, in June 2013, became Senior Wrangler at Cambridge University, aged 18 years and 0 months. He is thought to be the youngest Senior Wrangler ever. [1] [4]

Biography

Prior to university, Fernandez was educated at home, predominantly by his father, Neil Fernandez. [5] [6] In 2001 he broke the age record for gaining a General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE), the English academic qualification usually taken at age 16, for which he sat the examinations aged five. [7] In 2003 he became the youngest person ever to gain an A* grade at GCSE, also for Mathematics. [8] [9]

In October 2010, when Fernandez began studying the Cambridge Mathematical Tripos aged 15 years and 3 months, he was the youngest Cambridge University undergraduate since William Pitt the Younger in 1773. [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] .

Fernandez believes it was his exceptional environment rather than exceptional nature, that enabled him to achieve his academic successes. [15] "Everything I achieved is because of my education and the opportunities I had. And the big part of my story is that I never went to school. My parents never believed in the official education system." [16] In a 2020 interview with Raidio Teilifis Eireann he stated his opinion that a large number of people could achieve at the same level if they had the same opportunities as he did, and that those opportunities "would have to start at a very young age", such as at two years old. [17]

Starting in 2000 (aged five) Fernandez had several sequences published in the On-Line Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences (OEIS), the number theory database established by Neil Sloane. [18] [19] [20] Since 2017, he has had more than 20 mathematical research articles published in peer-reviewed international journals. [21] [22] [23]

Television work featuring Fernandez has included an appearance as a "Person of the Week" on Frank Elstner's talk show on German TV in 2001, [24] and an appearance on Terry Wogan’s and Gaby Roslin's The Terry and Gaby Show on British TV in 2003, [25] when he beat mathematics popularizer Johnny Ball in a live mental arithmetic contest, successfully extracting the fifth roots of several large integers.

In September 2018, having completed master's and doctoral degrees at the University of Cambridge, Fernandez joined the faculty of the Eastern Mediterranean University in Northern Cyprus as an assistant professor of mathematics, [26] [27] where in 2022 he became an associate professor. His main research areas are in fractional calculus and analytic number theory.

Related Research Articles

2 (two) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number following 1 and preceding 3. It is the smallest and only even prime number.

20 is the natural number following 19 and preceding 21.

19 (nineteen) is the natural number following 18 and preceding 20. It is a prime number.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Abundant number</span> Number that is less than the sum of its proper divisors

In number theory, an abundant number or excessive number is a positive integer for which the sum of its proper divisors is greater than the number. The integer 12 is the first abundant number. Its proper divisors are 1, 2, 3, 4 and 6 for a total of 16. The amount by which the sum exceeds the number is the abundance. The number 12 has an abundance of 4, for example.

90 (ninety) is the natural number following 89 and preceding 91.

69 is the natural number following 68 and preceding 70. An odd number and a composite number, 69 is divisible by 1, 3, 23 and 69. 69 is a semiprime because it is a natural number that is the product of exactly two prime numbers, and an interprime between the numbers of 67 and 71. Because 69 is not divisible by any square number other than 1, it is categorised as a square-free integer. 69 is also a Blum integer since the two factors of 69 are both Gaussian primes. In number theory, 69 is a deficient number, arithmetic number and a congruent number.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Neil Sloane</span> British-American mathematician

Neil James Alexander Sloane FLSW is a British-American mathematician. His major contributions are in the fields of combinatorics, error-correcting codes, and sphere packing. Sloane is best known for being the creator and maintainer of the On-Line Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences (OEIS).

100 or one hundred is the natural number following 99 and preceding 101.

In mathematics, and more particularly in number theory, primorial, denoted by "#", is a function from natural numbers to natural numbers similar to the factorial function, but rather than successively multiplying positive integers, the function only multiplies prime numbers.

144 is the natural number following 143 and preceding 145.

The On-Line Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences (OEIS) is an online database of integer sequences. It was created and maintained by Neil Sloane while researching at AT&T Labs. He transferred the intellectual property and hosting of the OEIS to the OEIS Foundation in 2009. Sloane is the chairman of the OEIS Foundation.

1729 is the natural number following 1728 and preceding 1730. It is notably the first nontrivial taxicab number.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ruth Lawrence</span> British–Israeli mathematician

Ruth Elke Lawrence-Neimark is a British–Israeli mathematician and a professor of mathematics at the Einstein Institute of Mathematics, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and a researcher in knot theory and algebraic topology. In the public eye, she is best known for having been a child prodigy in mathematics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">5</span> Integer number 5

5 (five) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number, and cardinal number, following 4 and preceding 6, and is a prime number.

In mathematics, a Størmer number or arc-cotangent irreducible number is a positive integer for which the greatest prime factor of is greater than or equal to . They are named after Carl Størmer.

14 (fourteen) is the natural number following 13 and preceding 15.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Senior Wrangler</span> Top mathematics undergraduate at Cambridge University

The Senior Wrangler is the top mathematics undergraduate at the University of Cambridge in England, a position which has been described as "the greatest intellectual achievement attainable in Britain".

<i>Journal of Integer Sequences</i> Academic journal

The Journal of Integer Sequences is a peer-reviewed open-access academic journal in mathematics, specializing in research papers about integer sequences.

Gary Antonick is an American journalist and recreational mathematician who for many years wrote a puzzle-based column called "Numberplay" for the New York Times.

References

  1. ↑ "Student, 18, youngest ever to come top in Cambridge maths finals". Daily Telegraph . 21 June 2013.
  2. ↑ Wilkinson, James H. Hammarling, Sven (2003). Encyclopedia of Computer Science. Springer London. ISBN   0-470-86412-5.
  3. ↑ Crilly, Tony (2006). Arthur Cayley: mathematician laureate of the Victorian age. Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 160. ISBN   0-8018-8011-4.
  4. ↑ The previous youngest was probably James Wilkinson in 1939, aged 19 years, 9 months,; [2] up to 1909, the youngest was Peter Guthrie Tait in 1862, aged 20 years, 8 months. [3]
  5. ↑ Rakoczy, Agnieszka (10 February 2021). "A focus on maths". Nicosia: Cyprus Mail . Retrieved 15 February 2021.
  6. ↑ Jennifer Zamparelli (November 2020). "Jennifer Zamparelli on 2FM" (Interview). Dublin, Ireland: RTE.
  7. ↑ "GCSE success stories". BBC. 23 August 2001. Retrieved 16 September 2008.
  8. ↑ Smithers, Rebecca (22 August 2003). "Bright young things set record". The Guardian . London. Retrieved 16 September 2008.
  9. ↑ "Achtjähriges Wunderkind: Klüger ohne Schule". Der Spiegel . 27 August 2003. Retrieved 14 February 2009.
  10. ↑ "14-Year-Old Prodigy Offered Place at Cambridge". San Diego Union Tribune . Retrieved 30 August 2015.
  11. ↑ "Boy who broke GCSE record at five is off to Cambridge". London Evening Standard. 12 April 2012. Retrieved 7 September 2018.
  12. ↑ Jones, Sam (7 January 2010). "Cambridge University offers place to 14-year-old". The Guardian . London. Archived from the original on 9 January 2010. Retrieved 8 January 2010.
  13. ↑ Garner, Richard (6 October 2010). "Maths prodigy Arran Fernandez is the youngest Cambridge fresher since 1773". The Independent . London. Retrieved 16 January 2011.
  14. ↑ "Un ragazzino di 15 anni si è iscritto a Cambridge, è record". Quotidiano.net. 3 September 2010. Retrieved 16 January 2011.
  15. ↑ Forsey, Zoe (24 November 2020). "'I took GCSE at 5 and went to Cambridge at 15 - but I believe it's nurture not nature'". London: Daily Mirror . Retrieved 24 November 2020.
  16. ↑ Rakoczy, Agnieszka (10 February 2021). "A focus on maths". Nicosia: Cyprus Mail . Retrieved 15 February 2021.
  17. ↑ Jennifer Zamparelli (November 2020). "Jennifer Zamparelli on 2FM" (Interview). Dublin, Ireland: RTE.
  18. ↑ Smithers, Rebecca (24 August 2001). "Integer sequences? Easy-peasy". The Guardian . London. Retrieved 14 February 2009.
  19. ↑ Sloane, N. J. A. (ed.). "SequenceA057142(Occurrences of most frequently occurring number in 1-to-n multiplication table)". The On-Line Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences . OEIS Foundation. Retrieved 14 February 2009.
  20. ↑ List of sequences in OEIS authored by Arran Fernandez
  21. ↑ "Arran Fernandez MathSciNet profile".
  22. ↑ "Arran Fernandez Research Gate profile".
  23. ↑ "Arran Fernandez Google Scholar profile".
  24. ↑ "Frank Elstner: Menschen der Woche". Presseportal. Retrieved 13 February 2009.
  25. ↑ "The Terry and Gaby Show". British Film Institute. Archived from the original on 30 January 2009. Retrieved 13 February 2009.
  26. ↑ "Dünyaca ünlü genç matematikçi DAÜ'de göreve başladı". Kibris Postasi. 20 September 2018.
  27. ↑ "New Faculty Member Assist. Prof. Dr. Arran Fernandez". Eastern Mediterranean University. 3 January 2019.
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