John Stuart Wilson (born 5 April 1944) is a British mathematician and former professor of mathematics at the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

. He is a Fellow of Christ's College, Cambridge and an Honorary Professor of the

University of Leipzig Leipzig University (german: Universität Leipzig), in Leipzig in Saxony, Germany, is one of the world's oldest universities and the second-oldest university (by consecutive years of existence) in Germany. The university was founded on 2 Decemb ...

. He specialises in

algebra Algebra () is one of the broad areas of mathematics. Roughly speaking, algebra is the study of mathematical symbols and the rules for manipulating these symbols in formulas; it is a unifying thread of almost all of mathematics. Elementary ...

and

group theory In abstract algebra, group theory studies the algebraic structures known as group (mathematics), groups. The concept of a group is central to abstract algebra: other well-known algebraic structures, such as ring (mathematics), rings, field ...

. He also composes music for choirs and for vocal and instrumental ensembles.

Education

John Wilson was educated at Christ's College, Cambridge. After gaining the BA degree in 1966 he obtained the PhD degree in 1971 with a dissertation entitled ''Subgroups of finite index in infinite groups''. He was awarded the degree of ScD in 1989.

Research

John Wilson has worked on many aspects of group theory. His best known contributions are to the study of just infinite groups and branch groups, to profinite group theory, to generation results for finite simple groups, and solubility criteria for finite groups

Mathematical career

John Wilson was elected a Fellow of Christ's College, Cambridge in 1969, and subsequently became a Lecturer in Mathematics in the

Department of Pure Mathematics and Mathematical Statistics Department may refer to: * Departmentalization, division of a larger organization into parts with specific responsibility Government and military *Department (administrative division), a geographical and administrative division within a country, ...

. In 1993 he was appointed to the Mason Chair of Mathematics at the

University of Birmingham The University of Birmingham (informally Birmingham University) is a Public university, public research university located in Edgbaston, Birmingham, United Kingdom. It received its royal charter in 1900 as a successor to Queen's College, Birmingha ...

, and in 2003 became professor of mathematics at the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

. On retirement from Oxford in 2011 he returned to Cambridge. He held the Leibniz Professorship at the

during the winter semester 2014–15 and in 2017 became an honorary professor of the University of Leipzig. He served as editor-in-chief of the '' Journal of Group Theory'' from its foundation for 20 years.

Music

John Wilson received the Licentiate of the Royal Academy of Music (

LRAM Licentiate of the Royal Academy of Music (LRAM) is a professional diploma, or licentiate, formerly open to both internal students of the Royal Academy of Music and to external candidates in voice, keyboard and orchestral instruments and guitar, a ...

) in 1963 and had some composition lessons with

Luciano Berio Luciano Berio (24 October 1925 – 27 May 2003) was an Italian composer noted for his experimental work (in particular his 1968 composition ''Sinfonia'' and his series of virtuosic solo pieces titled '' Sequenza''), and for his pioneering work ...

. He has been involved with choral singing since his childhood and has sung under the batons of distinguished conductors including

Benjamin Britten Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten (22 November 1913 – 4 December 1976, aged 63) was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He was a central figure of 20th-century British music, with a range of works including opera, other ...

. His compositions for choir include psalm and canticle settings, settings of texts by John Milton and Martin Luther, and part songs. He has also written Lieder with texts by Shakespeare, Brentano, Mongré 'Simplicissimus', a song with text by Paul Mongré
/ref> and other poets, and music for various combinations of instruments.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wilson, John Stuart Academics of the University of Oxford 1944 births Living people Alumni of Christ's College, Cambridge Fellows of Christ's College, Cambridge Academics of the University of Birmingham Academic journal editors 20th-century British composers 21st-century British mathematicians 21st-century British composers Group theorists