Robin Oliver Gandy (22 September 1919 – 20 November 1995) was a British mathematician and
logician
Logic is the study of correct reasoning. It includes both formal and informal logic. Formal logic is the science of deductively valid inferences or of logical truths. It is a formal science investigating how conclusions follow from premises ...
.
He was a friend, student, and associate of
Alan Turing
Alan Mathison Turing (; 23 June 1912 – 7 June 1954) was an English mathematician, computer scientist, logician, cryptanalyst, philosopher, and theoretical biologist. Turing was highly influential in the development of theoretical com ...
, having been supervised by Turing during his PhD at the
University of Cambridge
, mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts.
Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge.
, established =
, other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...
,
[ ] where they worked together.
Education and early life
Robin Gandy was born in the village of
Rotherfield Peppard
Rotherfield Peppard (often referred to simply as Peppard by locals) is a village and civil parish in the Chiltern Hills in South Oxfordshire. It is centred west of Henley-on-Thames, north of Reading, Berkshire and southwest of Rotherfield ...
, Oxfordshire, England.
He was the son of Thomas Hall Gandy (1876–1948), a
general practitioner, and
Ida Caroline née Hony (1885–1977), a social worker and later an author. He was a great-great-grandson of the architect and artist
Joseph Gandy
Joseph Michael Gandy (1771–1843) was an English artist, visionary architect and architectural theorist, most noted for his imaginative paintings depicting Sir John Soane's architectural designs. He worked extensively with Soane both as ...
(1771–1843).
Educated at
Abbotsholme School
Abbotsholme School is a co-educational independent boarding and day school. The school is situated on a 140-acre campus on the banks of the River Dove in Derbyshire, England near the county border and the village of Rocester in Staffordshire ...
in Derbyshire, Gandy took two years of the
Mathematical Tripos
The Mathematical Tripos is the mathematics course that is taught in the Faculty of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge. It is the oldest Tripos examined at the University.
Origin
In its classical nineteenth-century form, the tripos was ...
, at
King's College, Cambridge
King's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Formally The King's College of Our Lady and Saint Nicholas in Cambridge, the college lies beside the River Cam and faces out onto King's Parade in the centre of the city ...
, before enlisting for military service in 1940. During
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
he worked on radio intercept equipment at
Hanslope Park
Hanslope Park is located about half a mile south-east of the village of Hanslope in the City of Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England. Once the manorial estate of the village, it is now owned by the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Of ...
, where
Alan Turing
Alan Mathison Turing (; 23 June 1912 – 7 June 1954) was an English mathematician, computer scientist, logician, cryptanalyst, philosopher, and theoretical biologist. Turing was highly influential in the development of theoretical com ...
was working on a speech
encipherment
In cryptography
Cryptography, or cryptology (from grc, , translit=kryptós "hidden, secret"; and ''graphein'', "to write", or '' -logia'', "study", respectively), is the practice and study of techniques for secure communication in ...
project, and he became one of Turing's lifelong friends and associates. In 1946, he completed Part III of the Mathematical Tripos, then began studying for a
PhD under Turing's supervision. He completed his thesis, ''On axiomatic systems in mathematics and theories in Physics'', in 1952.
[ He was a member of the ]Cambridge Apostles
The Cambridge Apostles (also known as ''Conversazione Society'') is an intellectual society at the University of Cambridge founded in 1820 by George Tomlinson, a Cambridge student who became the first Bishop of Gibraltar.W. C. Lubenow, ''The Ca ...
.
Career and research
Gandy held positions at the University of Leicester
, mottoeng = So that they may have life
, established =
, type = public research university
, endowment = £20.0 million
, budget = £326 million
, chancellor = David Willetts
, vice_chancellor = Nishan Canagarajah
, head_labe ...
, the University of Leeds
, mottoeng = And knowledge will be increased
, established = 1831 – Leeds School of Medicine1874 – Yorkshire College of Science1884 - Yorkshire College1887 – affiliated to the federal Victoria University1904 – University of Leeds
, ...
, and the University of Manchester
, mottoeng = Knowledge, Wisdom, Humanity
, established = 2004 – University of Manchester Predecessor institutions: 1956 – UMIST (as university college; university 1994) 1904 – Victoria University of Manchester 1880 – Victoria Univer ...
. He was a visiting associate professor at Stanford University
Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...
from 1966 to 1967, and held a similar position at University of California, Los Angeles
The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...
in 1968. In 1969, he moved to Wolfson College, Oxford
Wolfson College () is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Located in north Oxford along the River Cherwell, Wolfson is an all-graduate college with around sixty governing body fellows, in addition to both research and ...
, where he became Reader
A reader is a person who reads. It may also refer to:
Computing and technology
* Adobe Reader (now Adobe Acrobat), a PDF reader
* Bible Reader for Palm, a discontinued PDA application
* A card reader, for extracting data from various forms of ...
in Mathematical Logic.
Gandy is known for his work in recursion theory
Computability theory, also known as recursion theory, is a branch of mathematical logic, computer science, and the theory of computation that originated in the 1930s with the study of computable functions and Turing degrees. The field has since e ...
. His contributions include the Spector–Gandy theorem, the Gandy Stage Comparison theorem, and the Gandy Selection theorem. He also made a significant contribution to the understanding of the Church–Turing thesis, and his generalisation of the Turing machine
A Turing machine is a mathematical model of computation describing an abstract machine that manipulates symbols on a strip of tape according to a table of rules. Despite the model's simplicity, it is capable of implementing any computer algori ...
is called a Gandy machine.
Gandy died in Oxford
Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...
, England on 20 November 1995.
Legacy
The Robin Gandy Buildings, a pair of accommodation blocks at Wolfson College, Oxford
Wolfson College () is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Located in north Oxford along the River Cherwell, Wolfson is an all-graduate college with around sixty governing body fellows, in addition to both research and ...
, are named after Gandy. A one-day centenary ''Gandy Colloquium'' was held on 22 February 2020 at the College in Gandy's honour, including contributions by some of his students; the speakers were Marianna Antonutti Marfori (Munich), Andrew Hodges
Andrew Philip Hodges (; born 1949) is a British mathematician, author and emeritus senior research fellow at Wadham College, Oxford.
Education
Hodges was born in London in 1949 and educated at Birkbeck, University of London where he was award ...
(Oxford), Martin Hyland
(John) Martin Elliott Hyland is professor of mathematical logic at the University of Cambridge and a fellow of King's College, Cambridge. His interests include mathematical logic, category theory, and theoretical computer science.
Education
H ...
(Cambridge), Jeff Paris (Manchester), Göran Sundholm (Leiden), Christine Tasson (Paris), and Philip Welch
Philip David Welch (born 6 January 1954) is a British mathematician known for his contributions to logic and set theory. He is Professor of Pure Mathematics at the School of Mathematics, University of Bristol. He is currently President of the B ...
(Bristol).
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gandy, Robin
1919 births
1995 deaths
Military personnel from Oxfordshire
British Army soldiers
People from Oxfordshire
Alumni of King's College, Cambridge
British Army personnel of World War II
English logicians
20th-century English philosophers
20th-century English mathematicians
Mathematical logicians
Academics of the University of Leicester
Academics of the University of Leeds
Academics of the Victoria University of Manchester
Stanford University Department of Mathematics faculty
University of California, Los Angeles faculty
Fellows of Wolfson College, Oxford
Robin