Peter Swinnerton-Dyer

Peter Swinnerton-Dyer
Peter Swinnerton-Dyer at the workshop “Explicit methods in number theory” in Oberwolfach, 2007
Born	2 August 1927 (1927-08-02) (age 84) Ponteland, Northumberland[1]
Residence	Thriplow, England[2]
Nationality	British
Fields	Mathematics
Institutions	University of Cambridge
Alma mater	University of Cambridge
Doctoral advisor	John Littlewood and André Weil
Doctoral students	Mehran Basti Andreas Bender Andrew Bremner Martin Bright Jean-Louis Colliot-Thélène Miles Reid Walter Stothers Barry Tennison
Known for	Birch and Swinnerton-Dyer conjecture
Notable awards	Pólya Prize Sylvester Medal

Sir Henry Peter Francis Swinnerton-Dyer, 16th Baronet KBE FRS (b. 2 August 1927), commonly known as Peter Swinnerton-Dyer, is an English mathematician specialising in number theory at University of Cambridge. As a mathematician he is best known for his part in the Birch and Swinnerton-Dyer conjecture relating algebraic properties of elliptic curves to special values of L-functions, which was developed with Bryan Birch during the first half of the 1960s with the help of machine computation, and for his work on the Titan operating system.

Contents 1 Biography 2 Books 3 Miscellanea 4 See also 5 Notes 6 External links

Biography

Swinnerton-Dyer is the son of Sir Leonard Schroeder Swinnerton Dyer, 15th Baronet, and his wife Barbara, daughter of Hereward Brackenbury. He was a Fellow of Trinity College, Master of St Catharine's College and vice-chancellor of the University of Cambridge from 1979 to 1983. From 1983 he was Chairman of the University Grants Committee and then from 1989, Chief Executive of the Universities Funding Council. He was elected Fellow of the Royal Society in 1967 and was a KBE in 1987. In 2006 he was awarded the Sylvester Medal.

Swinnerton-Dyer was, in his younger days, an international bridge player, representing the British team twice in the European Open teams championship. In 1953 at Helsinki he was partnered by Dimmie Fleming (the only occasion a woman has played in the British Open team): the team came second out of fifteen teams. In 1962 he was partnered by Ken Barbour; the team came fourth out of twelve teams at Beirut.^[3]

Books

• Swinnerton-Dyer, H.P.F. (1974), Analytic theory of Abelian varieties, LMS Lecture Notes, 14, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-20526-3 .
• Swinnerton-Dyer, Peter (2001), A brief guide to algebraic number theory, LMS Student Text, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-00423-3, http://books.google.com/books?isbn=0521004233 .

Miscellanea

Swinnerton-Dyer has a Morphy Number of 3.^[4]

See also

• List of Vice-Chancellors of the University of Cambridge
• List of Masters of St Catharine's College, Cambridge

Notes

1. ^ Sleeman, Elizabeth (2003), The International Who's Who 2004, Routledge, ISBN 1857432177 
2. ^ Peter Swinnerton-Dyer interviewed by Alan Macfarlane, 2008-05-12, http://www.alanmacfarlane.com/ancestors/swinnerton-dyer.htm, retrieved 2009-07-31 
3. ^ Hasenson P. British Bridge Almanack. 77, London. p400-1
4. ^ Frederick Rhine, Fun with Morphy Numbers

External links

• Personal web page
• Number Theory and Algebraic Geometry -- to Peter Swinnerton-Dyer on his 75th birthday, edited by Miles Reid and Alexei Skorobogatov, LMS Lecture Notes 303, Cambridge University Press, 2004 ISBN 0-521-54518-8
• Weisstein, Eric W., "Birch/Swinnerton-Dyer Conjecture" from MathWorld.
• Weisstein, Eric W., "Swinnerton-Dyer Polynomial" from MathWorld.
• Peter Swinnerton-Dyer interviewed by Alan Macfarlane 12th May 2008 (film)

Baronetage of England
Preceded by Leonard Schroeder Swinnerton Dyer	Baronet (of Tottenham) 1975–present	Succeeded by Incumbent
Academic offices
Preceded by Edwin Ernest Rich	Master of St Catharine's College, Cambridge 1979–1983	Succeeded by Barry Supple
Preceded by Sir Alan Cottrell	Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge 1979–1981	Succeeded by Sir Harry Hinsley

Persondata
Name	Swinnerton-Dyer, Peter
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1927-08-02
Place of birth	Ponteland, Northumberland
Date of death
Place of death