Michael Guy

Last updated

Michael J. T. Guy
Born (1943-04-01) 1 April 1943 (age 81)
Citizenship United Kingdom
Known for ALGOL 68C
Scientific career
Fields Computer science, mathematics
Institutions University of Cambridge
Academic advisors J. W. S. Cassels

Michael J. T. Guy (born 1 April 1943[ citation needed ]) is a British computer scientist and mathematician. He is known for early work on computer systems, such as the Phoenix system at the University of Cambridge, [1] and for contributions to number theory, computer algebra, and the theory of polyhedra in higher dimensions. He worked closely with John Horton Conway, and is the son of Conway's collaborator Richard K. Guy.

Contents

Mathematical work

With Conway, Guy found the complete solution to the Soma cube of Piet Hein. [2] [3] Also with Conway, an enumeration led to the discovery of the grand antiprism, an unusual uniform polychoron in four dimensions. The two had met at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, where Guy was an undergraduate student from 1960, and Conway was a graduate student. It was through Michael that Conway met Richard Guy, who would become a co-author of works in combinatorial game theory. [4] Michael Guy with Conway made numerous particular contributions to geometry, number and game theory, often published in problem selections by Richard Guy. Some of these are recreational mathematics, others contributions to discrete mathematics. [5] They also worked on the sporadic groups. [6]

Guy began work as a research student of J. W. S. Cassels at Department of Pure Mathematics and Mathematical Statistics (DPMMS), Cambridge. [7] He did not complete a Ph.D., but joint work with Cassels produced numerical examples on the Hasse principle for cubic surfaces. [8]

Computer science

He subsequently went into computer science. He worked on the filing system for Titan, Cambridge's Atlas 2, [9] [10] being one of a team of four in one office including Roger Needham. [11] [12] In working on ALGOL 68, he was co-author with Stephen R. Bourne of ALGOL 68C. [13] [14]

Bibliography

Notes

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Horton Conway</span> English mathematician (1937–2020)

John Horton Conway was an English mathematician. He was active in the theory of finite groups, knot theory, number theory, combinatorial game theory and coding theory. He also made contributions to many branches of recreational mathematics, most notably the invention of the cellular automaton called the Game of Life.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Monster group</span> Sporadic simple group

In the area of abstract algebra known as group theory, the monster group M (also known as the Fischer–Griess monster, or the friendly giant) is the largest sporadic simple group, having order

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stephen R. Bourne</span> British computer scientist

Stephen Richard "Steve" Bourne is an English computer scientist based in the United States for most of his career. He is well known as the author of the Bourne shell (sh), which is the foundation for the standard command-line interfaces to Unix.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Geometry of numbers</span>

Geometry of numbers is the part of number theory which uses geometry for the study of algebraic numbers. Typically, a ring of algebraic integers is viewed as a lattice in and the study of these lattices provides fundamental information on algebraic numbers. Hermann Minkowski initiated this line of research at the age of 26 in his work The Geometry of Numbers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Combinatorial game theory</span> Branch of game theory about two-player sequential games with perfect information

Combinatorial game theory is a branch of mathematics and theoretical computer science that typically studies sequential games with perfect information. Study has been largely confined to two-player games that have a position that the players take turns changing in defined ways or moves to achieve a defined winning condition. Combinatorial game theory has not traditionally studied games of chance or those that use imperfect or incomplete information, favoring games that offer perfect information in which the state of the game and the set of available moves is always known by both players. However, as mathematical techniques advance, the types of game that can be mathematically analyzed expands, thus the boundaries of the field are ever changing. Scholars will generally define what they mean by a "game" at the beginning of a paper, and these definitions often vary as they are specific to the game being analyzed and are not meant to represent the entire scope of the field.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sporadic group</span> Finite simple group type not classified as Lie, cyclic or alternating

In the mathematical classification of finite simple groups, there are a number of groups which do not fit into any infinite family. These are called the sporadic simple groups, or the sporadic finite groups, or just the sporadic groups.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Department of Computer Science and Technology, University of Cambridge</span> Computer science division at the University of Cambridge

The Department of Computer Science and Technology, formerly the Computer Laboratory, is the computer science department of the University of Cambridge. As of 2023 it employed 56 faculty members, 45 support staff, 105 research staff, and about 205 research students. The current Head of Department is Professor Alastair Beresford.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elwyn Berlekamp</span> American mathematician (1940–2019)

Elwyn Ralph Berlekamp was a professor of mathematics and computer science at the University of California, Berkeley. Berlekamp was widely known for his work in computer science, coding theory and combinatorial game theory.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Richard K. Guy</span> British mathematician (1916–2020)

Richard Kenneth Guy was a British mathematician. He was a professor in the Department of Mathematics at the University of Calgary. He is known for his work in number theory, geometry, recreational mathematics, combinatorics, and graph theory. He is best known for co-authorship of Winning Ways for your Mathematical Plays and authorship of Unsolved Problems in Number Theory. He published more than 300 scholarly articles. Guy proposed the partially tongue-in-cheek "strong law of small numbers", which says there are not enough small integers available for the many tasks assigned to them – thus explaining many coincidences and patterns found among numerous cultures. For this paper he received the MAA Lester R. Ford Award.

CPL is a multi-paradigm programming language developed in the early 1960s. It is an early ancestor of the C language via the BCPL and B languages.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">CAP computer</span>

The Cambridge CAP computer was the first successful experimental computer that demonstrated the use of security capabilities, both in hardware and software. It was developed at the University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory in the 1970s. Unlike most research machines of the time, it was also a useful service machine.

ALGOL 68C is an imperative computer programming language, a dialect of ALGOL 68, that was developed by Stephen R. Bourne and Michael Guy to program the Cambridge Algebra System (CAMAL). The initial compiler was written in the Princeton Syntax Compiler that was implemented by J. H. Mathewman at Cambridge.

Robert Arnott Wilson is a retired mathematician in London, England, who is best known for his work on classifying the maximal subgroups of finite simple groups and for the work in the Monster group. He is also an accomplished violin, viola and piano player, having played as the principal viola in the Sinfonia of Birmingham. Due to a damaged finger, he now principally plays the kora.

Conway group Co<sub>3</sub> Sporadic simple group

In the area of modern algebra known as group theory, the Conway group is a sporadic simple group of order

Cambridge Algebra System (CAMAL) is a computer algebra system written in Cambridge University by David Barton, Steve Bourne, and John Fitch. It was initially used for computations in celestial mechanics and general relativity. The foundation code was written in Titan computer assembler. In 1973, when Titan was replaced with an IBM370/85, it was rewritten in ALGOL 68C and then BCPL where it could run on IBM mainframes and assorted microcomputers.

Patrick Michael Grundy was an English mathematician and statistician. He was one of the eponymous co-discoverers of the Sprague–Grundy function and its application to the analysis of a wide class of combinatorial games.

Thomas K. Porter is the senior vice president of production strategy at Pixar and one of the studio's founding employees.

References

  1. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 21 February 2007. Retrieved 22 March 2008.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  2. Weisstein, Eric W. "Soma Cube". Wolfram MathWorld.
  3. Kustes, William (Bill). "The SOMAP construction map". SOMA News.
  4. Guy, Richard K. (November 1982). "John Horton Conway: Mathematical Magus". The Two-Year College Mathematics Journal. 13 (5): 290–299. doi:10.2307/3026500. JSTOR   3026500.
  5. Conway, J.H.; Guy, M. J. T. (1982). "Message graphs". Annals of Discrete Mathematics. 13: 61–64.
  6. Griess, Robert L. Jr. (1998). Twelve Sporadic Groups. New York City: Springer. p. 127. ISBN   978-3-662-03516-0.
  7. Cassels, J. W. S. (1995). "Computer-aided serendipity". Rendiconti del Seminario Matematico della Università di Padova. 93: 187–197.
  8. Cassels, J. W. S.; Guy, M. J. T. (1966). "On the Hasse principle for cubic surfaces". Mathematika . 13 (2): 111–120. doi:10.1112/S0025579300003879.
  9. Herbert, Andrew J.; Needham, Roger Michael; Spärck Jones, Karen I. B. (2004). Computer Systems: Theory, Technology, and Applications: a Tribute to Roger Needham . p. 105.
  10. "Atlas 2 at Cambridge Mathematical Laboratory (And Aldermaston and CAD Centre)" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 25 November 2018. Retrieved 24 July 2020.
  11. Hartley, David, ed. (21 July 1999). "EDSAC 1 and after". Computer Laboratory. University of Cambridge.
  12. Wheeler, David; Hartley, David (March 1999). "Computer Laboratory - Events in the early history of the Computer Laboratory". Department of Computer Science and Technology. University of Cambridge.
  13. The Encyclopedia of Computer Languages Archived 25 August 2007 at the Wayback Machine
  14. ALGOL 68C