Previous (Chronologically) Next Biographies Index Previous ( Alphabetically) Next Welcome page
Joseph Wedderburn made important advances in the theory of rings, algebras and matrix theory.
He entered Edinburgh University in 1898, obtaining a degree in mathematics in 1903. Wedderburn then pusrued postgraduate studies in Germany spending 1903-1904 at the University of Leipzig and then a semester at the University of Berlin.
He was awarded a Carnegie Scholarship to study in the USA and he spent 1904-1905 at the University of Chicago where he did joint work with Veblen. Returning to Scotland he worked for 4 years at Edinburgh as assistant to George Chrystal. From 1906 to 1908 he served as editor of the Proceedings of the Edinburgh Mathematical Society.
In 1909 Wedderburn was appointed a Preceptor in Mathematics at Princeton where he joined Veblen. However World War I saw Wedderburn volunteer for the British Army and he served, partly in France, until the end of the war.
On his return to Princeton he was soon promoted obtaining permanent tenure in1921. He served as Editor of the Annals of Mathematics from 1912 to 1928. From about the end of this period Wedderburn seemed to suffer a mild nervous breakdown and became an increasingly solitary figure. By 1945 the Priceton gave him early retirement in his own best interests.
Wedderburn's best mathematical work was done before his war service. In 1905 he showed that a non-commutatiove finite field could not exist. This had as a corollary the complete structure of all finite projective geometries, showing that in all these geometries Pascal's theorem is a consequence of Desargues' theorem.
In 1907 he published what is perhaps his most famous paper on the classification of semisimple algebras. He showed that every semisimple algebra is a direct sum of simple algebras and that a simple algebra was a matrix algebra over a division ring.
In total he published around 40 works mostly on rings and matrices. His most famous book is Lectures on Matrices (1934).
References:
Previous (Chronologically) Next Biographies Index Previous ( Alphabetically) Next Welcome page History Topics Index Famous curves index Chronologies Birthplace Map Mathematicians of the day Anniversaries for the year Search Form Simple Search Form Search Suggestions