Bryan John Birch facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Bryan John Birch
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Birch explaining the Birch and Swinnerton-Dyer Conjecture at the University of Cambridge in May 2011
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| Born | 25 September 1931 Burton-upon-Trent, England
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| Nationality | British |
| Alma mater | Trinity College, Cambridge |
| Known for | Birch and Swinnerton-Dyer conjecture Birch–Tate conjecture Birch's theorem Heegner point Modular symbol |
| Awards | Senior Whitehead Prize (1993) De Morgan Medal (2007) Sylvester Medal (2020) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Mathematics |
| Institutions | University of Oxford |
| Doctoral advisor | J. W. S. Cassels |
| Doctoral students | Kaye Stacey |
Bryan John Birch (born September 25, 1931) is a famous British mathematician. He is known for a big idea in math called the Birch and Swinnerton-Dyer conjecture. This important idea is named after him! He is also a FRS, which means he is a top scientist in the United Kingdom.
Meet Bryan Birch
Bryan John Birch was born in Burton-on-Trent, England. His parents were Arthur Jack and Mary Edith Birch. He went to Shrewsbury School. Later, he studied at Trinity College, Cambridge, a very famous university. In 1961, he married Gina Margaret Christ. They have three children.
When he was a student working on his PhD at the University of Cambridge, he officially worked with J. W. S. Cassels. But he was also greatly inspired by another mathematician, Harold Davenport. With Davenport's influence, Bryan Birch proved something important called Birch's theorem. This theorem came from a math method known as the Hardy–Littlewood circle method.
Big Ideas in Math
Later, Bryan Birch worked with Peter Swinnerton-Dyer. They used computers to study special math problems about elliptic curves. Elliptic curves are types of equations that make specific shapes when graphed. Their work led to a very important idea called the Birch and Swinnerton-Dyer conjecture. A conjecture is like a very strong guess in math that people believe is true, but it hasn't been fully proven yet.
This conjecture connects the "rank" of an elliptic curve to something called an L-function. Their idea has been super important for how number theory has grown since the 1960s. Number theory is a branch of math that studies numbers and their properties.
Around 1971, Bryan Birch also came up with a new math tool called modular symbols. These symbols help mathematicians study certain types of functions.
In his later work, he helped develop a field called algebraic K-theory. This led to another important idea known as the Birch–Tate conjecture. He also explored the role of Heegner points. Heegner points are special points related to elliptic curves. Bryan Birch helped show how these points were important for a major math problem. He also helped set the stage for proving the Gross–Zagier theorem, which is another big result in number theory.
Awards and Recognition
Bryan Birch has received many honors for his work. In 1972, he was chosen as a Fellow of the Royal Society. This is a very high honor for scientists in the UK.
He also received several awards from the London Mathematical Society. He won the Senior Whitehead Prize in 1993. In 2007, he was awarded the De Morgan Medal. In 2012, he became a fellow of the American Mathematical Society. Most recently, in 2020, he received the Sylvester Medal from the Royal Society.
Books He Helped With
Bryan Birch has also helped edit and put together several important math books:
- Computers in Number Theory. (editor). London: Academic Press, 1973.
- Modular function of one variable IV (editor) with W. Kuyk. Lecture Notes in Mathematics 476. Berlin: Springer Verlag, 1975.
- The Collected Works of Harold Davenport. (editor). London: Academic Press, 1977.
