Mark Andrew Ronan (born 1947) is Emeritus Professor of Mathematics at the

University of Illinois at Chicago The University of Illinois Chicago (UIC) is a Public university, public research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its campus is in the Near West Side, Chicago, Near West Side community area, adjacent to the Chicago Loop. The second campus esta ...

and Honorary Professor of Mathematics at

University College London , mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £143 million (2020) , budget = ...

. He has lived and taught in: Germany (at the

University of Braunschweig The Technische Universität Braunschweig (unofficially University of Braunschweig – Institute of Technology), commonly referred to as TU Braunschweig, is the oldest ' (comparable to an institute of technology in the American system) in Germany. ...

and the

Free University of Berlin The Free University of Berlin (, often abbreviated as FU Berlin or simply FU) is a public research university in Berlin, Germany. It is consistently ranked among Germany's best universities, with particular strengths in political science and t ...

); in England, where from 1989 to 1992 he was Mason Professor of Mathematics at the

University of Birmingham , mottoeng = Through efforts to heights , established = 1825 – Birmingham School of Medicine and Surgery1836 – Birmingham Royal School of Medicine and Surgery1843 – Queen's College1875 – Mason Science College1898 – Mason Univers ...

; and America at the

, where his teaching included courses on ancient literature from Mesopotamia, and on the history of the calendar, as well as mathematics. In addition to his research papers, Ronan's popular account of the quest to discover and classify all the finite building blocks for symmetry (the

finite simple groups Finite is the opposite of infinite. It may refer to: * Finite number (disambiguation) * Finite set, a set whose cardinality (number of elements) is some natural number * Finite verb, a verb form that has a subject, usually being inflected or marked ...

) was published in 2006. In 2008 it formed the basis for a series of BBC radio broadcasts. In his research work he is an expert on the theory of

buildings A building, or edifice, is an enclosed structure with a roof and walls standing more or less permanently in one place, such as a house or factory (although there's also portable buildings). Buildings come in a variety of sizes, shapes, and funct ...

, with a standard text on the subject, now being reissued in paperback. Apart from his professional work, he has acted in many operas at the

Lyric Opera of Chicago Lyric Opera of Chicago is one of the leading opera companies in the United States. It was founded in Chicago in 1954, under the name 'Lyric Theatre of Chicago' by Carol Fox, Nicola Rescigno and Lawrence Kelly, with a season that included Maria ...

, danced in the Nutcracker, and maintains a blog on opera, ballet and theatre reviews.

Bibliography

''Lectures on Buildings'', original edition, Academic Press 1989; paperback edition, updated and revised, University of Chicago Press 2009. ''Symmetry and the Monster'', Oxford University Press 2006.

References

External links

Mark Ronan's HomepageMark Ronan's Theatre Reviews
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ronan, Mark 20th-century British mathematicians 21st-century British mathematicians 20th-century American mathematicians 21st-century American mathematicians Group theorists Academics of University College London University of Illinois Chicago faculty Living people Academic staff of the Technical University of Braunschweig 1947 births