Percy Alexander MacMahon

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Percy Alexander MacMahon
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Percy Alexander MacMahon

Percy Alexander MacMahon (b. 26 September 1854, Sliema, Malta25 December 1929, Bognor Regis, England) was a mathematician, especially noted in connection with the partition of numbers and analysis.

MacMahon studied at the Cheltenham College, joined the Royal Artillery and served in India for 10 years. He then became an instructor at the Royal Military Academy in 1882, and in 1890 became a professor at the Royal Ordnance College, holding this post until 1897. He retired from the military in 1898.

MacMahon was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1890. He received the Royal Society Royal Medal in 1900, the Sylvester Medal in 1919, and the Morgan Medal by the London Mathematical Society in 1923. MacMahon was the President of the London Mathematical Society from 1894 to 1896.

MacMahon is best known for his study of symmetric functions and enumeration of plane partitions. His two volume Combinatory analysis monograph is probably the first major monograph in enumerative combinatorics.

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