HEROES IN ALGEBRAIC MATHS

Two share Abel prize for group theory in algebra
— Photo: AFP NEW CONCEPTS: U.S. Graduate Research Professor John Griggs Thompson (left) of the University of Florida and French Mathematician Jacques Tits of the College de France who won the Abel prize.
OSLO: American John Griggs Thompson and Belgian-born Jacques Tits won the 6 million kroner ($1.2 million) Abel Prize for mathematics on Thursday for their contributions to the group theory of algebra.
Professor Thompson, 75, teaches at the University of Florida, while Dr. Tits, 77, is a professor emeritus at College de France in Paris and became a French citizen in 1974.
The awards committee said the two helped shape modern group theory in algebra. The theory — also called the science of symmetries — can be used to solve such everyday challenges as a Rubik’s Cube, or be used in physics, computer science and geometry.
“The achievements of John Thompson and of Jacques Tits are of extraordinary depth and influence. They complement each other and together form the backbone of modern group theory,” the citation said. The Abel Prize, first awarded in 2003, was created by the Norwegian government and named after 19th Century Norwegian mathematician Niels Henrik Abel. Multisided figures
The committee said Professor Thompson and Dr. Tits each invented important new concepts in group theory, where mathematicians seek to understand the relation between reflections and rotations of a icosahedron, which are multisided figures.
In a popularised presentation of their work, University of Oslo mathematician Arne B. Sletsjoe used the famous Rubik’s Cube, a mechanical puzzle with six sides, each divided into smaller cubes of differing colours. Group theory would allow a mathematician to calculate the number and order of rotations needed to get of the each six sides to be a specific solid colour.Rubic’s cube
“From a group theoretic point of view, this is not so complicated,” Professor Sletsjoe wrote. However, he conceded: “To remember and to accomplish the sequences is quite another business. Rubik’s cube is not only a nice example of applied group theory, it is definitely an evidence of the fact that theory is one thing, to put it into practice is quite another.”
Professor Thompson was born in Ottawa, Kansas and graduated from Yale University in 1955 and received his doctorate from the University of Chicago in 1959.
He taught at Harvard University and then at the University of Chicago, before moving to Britain, where he spent 23 years teaching at the University of Cambridge. He now lives in Florida.
Dr. Tits was born on near Brussels, Belgium. He was admitted to the Free University of Brussels at age 14, and received his doctorate at the age of 20.
He also taught there, and at the University of Bonn in 1964, before he accepted the chair of group theory in the College de France 1973, a post he held until he retired in 2000