Burton Wadsworth Jones (1 October 1902 – 8 December 1983) was an American mathematician, known for his work on

quadratic form In mathematics, a quadratic form is a polynomial with terms all of degree two ("form" is another name for a homogeneous polynomial). For example, :4x^2 + 2xy - 3y^2 is a quadratic form in the variables and . The coefficients usually belong to a ...

s. B. W. Jones was born in

Redwood Falls, Minnesota Redwood Falls is a city in Redwood County, located along the Redwood River near its confluence with the Minnesota River, in the U.S. state of Minnesota. The population was 5,102 at the 2020 census. It is the county seat. History As the immigr ...

. He received his BA in 1923 from

Grinell College Grinnell College is a private liberal arts college in Grinnell, Iowa, United States. It was founded in 1846 when a group of New England Congregationalists established the Trustees of Iowa College. Grinnell has the fifth highest endowment-to-stu ...

, his MA in 1924 from

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

, and his PhD in mathematics in 1928 from the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...

under

L. E. Dickson Leonard Eugene Dickson (January 22, 1874 – January 17, 1954) was an American mathematician. He was one of the first American researchers in abstract algebra, in particular the theory of finite fields and classical groups, and is also reme ...

. Jones was a mathematics professor at

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...

from 1930 to 1948. At Cornell, he supervised the doctoral dissertations of four mathematicians: Irma Moses Reiner (1946),

Irving Reiner Irving Reiner (February 8, 1924 in Brooklyn, New York – October 28, 1986 in Urbana, Illinois) was a mathematician at the University of Illinois who worked on representation theory. He solved the problem of finding which abelian groups have a f ...

(1947), Mary Dolciani (1947), and William J. LeVeque (1948). Jones was a member of the

University of Colorado Boulder The University of Colorado Boulder (CU Boulder, CU, or Colorado) is a public research university in Boulder, Colorado. Founded in 1876, five months before Colorado became a state, it is the flagship university of the University of Colorado syst ...

faculty from 1948 to his retirement in 1971; he was chair of the mathematics department from 1949 to 1963. Jones was honored by being selected to write the Carus Monograph Number 10, entitled ''The Arithmetic Theory of Quadratic Forms''. He received the Mathematical Association of America (MAA) Distinguished Service Award in 1971. In 1991 the Rocky Mountain section of the MAA honored the memory of B. W. Jones by naming their yearly Distinguished Teaching Award after him. He died in

Wellesley, Massachusetts Wellesley () is a New England town, town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States. Wellesley is part of Greater Boston. The population was 29,550 at the time of the 2020 census. Wellesley College, Babson Col ...

Publications

* * * *with Gordon Pall: * * *with William Hetherington Durfee: *with Edward Harold Hadlock:

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jones, Burton Wadsworth 1902 births 1983 deaths Cornell University faculty University of Colorado Boulder faculty 20th-century American mathematicians Number theorists Grinnell College alumni Harvard University alumni University of Chicago alumni People from Redwood Falls, Minnesota