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Max Newman
Times obituary
Contributions to Mathematics
Professor M. H. A. Newman, FRS, who has died at the age of 87, made distinguished contributions to mathematics during a career which saw him as a University Lecturer in Mathematics at Cambridge University before the war, and as Fielden Professor of Mathematics at Manchester University from 1945 to 1964. But he deserves to be remembered also for his war services at Bletchley Park.
Maxwell Herman Alexander Newman was born on February 7, 1897, and educated at the City of London School and St. John's College, Cambridge, where he was made a Fellow in 1923. He spent a year in Vienna from 1922 to 1923, and in 1928 to 1929 was a Rockefeller Research Fellow at Princeton. In 1927, he was appointed to a University Lectureship in Mathematics at Cambridge, which he was to hold until 1945.
Newman was the first British mathematician to work in combinatorial topology. Here he contributed to fixed-point theory and paved the way for the work of P. A. Smith; but his main achievement was to rework the foundations of combinatorial topology in a series of papers from 1926 to 1932. Later, he returned to topology, publishing from 1960 to 1966 work of a quality and topicality seldom attained by mathematicians in their sixties.
Newman spent most of the period 1939–1945 at Bletchley Park. Much has been written about the solution of the "Enigma" cipher. The work to which Newman contributed, though distinct from that on "Enigma," has been described as being of comparable importance. He devised a way of carrying forward the work of Tiltman and Tutte by using specially designed machines, and for this purpose was given charge of a section, commonly called the "Newmanry."
He ran this section admirably. He soon became involved in designing a much more advanced machine, which many think has a place in the early history of digital computers. The design brought into play his knowledge of formal logic. All this gave him insight into what could be done by electronic means and convinced him that general-purpose digital computers could and should be built.
In 1945, Newman followed Mordell as Fielden Professor in Manchester. He was a shrewd judge of mathematicians; he recruited for his department a star-studded cast, including Alan Turing, Bernhard Neumann, J. W. S. Cassels, and others. Having brought them there, he looked after them.
He devoted equal care to the oversight of all aspects of the work of his department. He expected all his staff to contribute both to teaching and research, and he watched both. He wrote syllabuses in greater detail than had been usual. He enjoyed excellent relations with the applied mathematicians, after which he negotiated a just peace over the division of the students' time.
He was elected to the Royal Society in 1939 and received the Sylvester Medal in 1958. In 1962 he received both the De Morgan Medal and an invitation to address the International Congress of Mathematicians, an honor which reflects current authority rather than past achievement.
His first wife, Lynn, an author, died in 1973, leaving him two sons. He later remarried. Margaret, widow of Professor L. S. Penrose, who survives him.
Contributions to Mathematics
Professor M. H. A. Newman, FRS, who has died at the age of 87, made distinguished contributions to mathematics during a career which saw him as a University Lecturer in Mathematics at Cambridge University before the war, and as Fielden Professor of Mathematics at Manchester University from 1945 to 1964. But he deserves to be remembered also for his war services at Bletchley Park.
Maxwell Herman Alexander Newman was born on February 7, 1897, and educated at the City of London School and St. John's College, Cambridge, where he was made a Fellow in 1923. He spent a year in Vienna from 1922 to 1923, and in 1928 to 1929 was a Rockefeller Research Fellow at Princeton. In 1927, he was appointed to a University Lectureship in Mathematics at Cambridge, which he was to hold until 1945.
Newman was the first British mathematician to work in combinatorial topology. Here he contributed to fixed-point theory and paved the way for the work of P. A. Smith; but his main achievement was to rework the foundations of combinatorial topology in a series of papers from 1926 to 1932. Later, he returned to topology, publishing from 1960 to 1966 work of a quality and topicality seldom attained by mathematicians in their sixties.
Newman spent most of the period 1939–1945 at Bletchley Park. Much has been written about the solution of the "Enigma" cipher. The work to which Newman contributed, though distinct from that on "Enigma," has been described as being of comparable importance. He devised a way of carrying forward the work of Tiltman and Tutte by using specially designed machines, and for this purpose was given charge of a section, commonly called the "Newmanry."
He ran this section admirably. He soon became involved in designing a much more advanced machine, which many think has a place in the early history of digital computers. The design brought into play his knowledge of formal logic. All this gave him insight into what could be done by electronic means and convinced him that general-purpose digital computers could and should be built.
In 1945, Newman followed Mordell as Fielden Professor in Manchester. He was a shrewd judge of mathematicians; he recruited for his department a star-studded cast, including Alan Turing, Bernhard Neumann, J. W. S. Cassels, and others. Having brought them there, he looked after them.
He devoted equal care to the oversight of all aspects of the work of his department. He expected all his staff to contribute both to teaching and research, and he watched both. He wrote syllabuses in greater detail than had been usual. He enjoyed excellent relations with the applied mathematicians, after which he negotiated a just peace over the division of the students' time.
He was elected to the Royal Society in 1939 and received the Sylvester Medal in 1958. In 1962 he received both the De Morgan Medal and an invitation to address the International Congress of Mathematicians, an honor which reflects current authority rather than past achievement.
His first wife, Lynn, an author, died in 1973, leaving him two sons. He later remarried. Margaret, widow of Professor L. S. Penrose, who survives him.
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