Angus Macintyre facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Angus MacIntyre
|
|
---|---|
![]() Angus Macintyre in 2009
|
|
Born |
Angus John MacIntyre
1941 (age 83–84) |
Alma mater |
|
Awards |
|
Scientific career | |
Institutions | Queen Mary University of London University of Edinburgh University of Oxford Yale University |
Thesis | Classifying Pairs of Real-Closed Fields (1968) |
Doctoral advisor | Dana Scott |
Doctoral students | Zoé Chatzidakis Peter Winkler Francisco Miraglia |
Angus John Macintyre (born in 1941) is a British mathematician. He is a very important expert in model theory and logic. These are advanced areas of mathematics. His work has also helped in fields like algebra and number theory. He is currently a Professor Emeritus of Mathematics at Queen Mary University of London.
Education
Angus Macintyre studied at the University of Cambridge for his first degree. After that, he went to Stanford University in the United States. He earned his PhD there in 1968. His main teacher for his PhD was Dana Scott.
Career and Research
Angus Macintyre has taught at several famous universities. From 1973 to 1985, he was a Professor of Mathematics at Yale University. Then, from 1985 to 1999, he taught at the University of Oxford.
In 1999, he moved to the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. He was a Professor of Mathematics there until 2002. After that, he joined Queen Mary University of London. He was also the first Scientific Director of the International Centre for Mathematical Sciences (ICMS) in Edinburgh.
Macintyre is known for many important discoveries in mathematics.
- In 1971, he made key advances in model theory. This work helped develop a field called geometric stability theory.
- In 1976, he found a way to simplify complex problems in mathematics. This involved special number systems called "p-adic fields." His method helped other mathematicians, like Jan Denef, solve big puzzles.
- His work was used to prove a guess by Jean-Pierre Serre about certain mathematical series. These methods have since been used in group theory and number theory.
- He worked with Zoé Chatzidakis and Lou van den Dries. They studied mathematical sets over finite fields. This built on earlier work by other famous mathematicians.
- Macintyre also explored the model theory of "difference fields." He proved new results in this area.
- He developed a model theory for "intersection theory." This showed connections to ideas by Alexander Grothendieck.
Macintyre has also made many discoveries about real and complex numbers.
- With Alex Wilkie, he solved a long-standing problem by Alfred Tarski. This was about whether real exponential fields could be decided.
- He worked with Lou van den Dries to study "logarithmic-exponential series."
- Together with David Marker and Lou van den Dries, he studied real numbers with special functions. This work has been used in many areas of mathematics.
- Macintyre has also worked on Boris Zilber's ideas about complex numbers.
More recently, Macintyre and Jamshid Derakhshan have developed a model theory for "adele rings." These are special mathematical structures used in number theory. Their work helps to understand how these structures behave.
In 2023, Angus Macintyre and Jamshid Derakhshan solved a problem. This problem was posed by James Ax in 1968. It was about the properties of a class of numbers called Z/mZ. Their solution used the model theory of adeles.
Macintyre has also worked with Marek Karpinski. They proved results on "VC-dimension." This has been useful in theoretical computer science and in understanding neural networks.
Awards and Honours
Angus Macintyre has received many awards for his work.
- In 1993, he was chosen as a Fellow of the Royal Society. This is a very high honour for scientists in the UK.
- In 2003, he won the Pólya Prize from the London Mathematical Society.
- From 2009 to 2011, he was the President of the London Mathematical Society.