Carl Pomerance facts for kids
Carl Bernard Pomerance, born in 1944 in Joplin, Missouri, is a famous American mathematician. He specializes in a field called number theory. This area of math studies whole numbers and their properties.
Carl went to Brown University for college. He then earned his Ph.D. (a high-level degree) from Harvard University in 1972. For his Ph.D., he proved an important idea about odd perfect numbers. He showed that any odd perfect number must have at least seven different prime factors.
After his studies, Carl joined the faculty at the University of Georgia. He became a full professor there in 1982. Later, he worked at Lucent Technologies for several years. He then became a special professor at Dartmouth College.
His Amazing Discoveries
Carl Pomerance has written over 120 math papers and books. He co-wrote a book called Prime numbers: a computational perspective with Richard Crandall. This book helps people understand prime numbers using computers.
He also invented a way to break down large numbers into their prime factors. This method is called the quadratic sieve algorithm. In 1994, this algorithm was used to solve a very big math problem called RSA-129.
Carl also helped discover the Adleman–Pomerance–Rumely primality test. This test helps mathematicians figure out if a very large number is a prime number.
Awards and Recognition
Carl Pomerance has received many awards for his teaching and research.
- In 1985, he won the Chauvenet Prize.
- In 1997, he received the Deborah and Franklin Haimo Award for excellent math teaching.
- In 2001, he won the Levi L. Conant Prize for his paper "A Tale of Two Sieves".
In 2012, he became a fellow of the American Mathematical Society. This is a special honor given to top mathematicians. In the same year, he also became the John G. Kemeny Parents Professor of Mathematics.
See also
In Spanish: Carl Pomerance para niños
- Carmichael numbers
- Ruth–Aaron pair
