Roger Alan Horn (born January 19, 1942) is an American mathematician specializing in

matrix analysis In mathematics, particularly in linear algebra and applications, matrix analysis is the study of matrices and their algebraic properties. Some particular topics out of many include; operations defined on matrices (such as matrix addition, matrix mul ...

. He was research professor of mathematics at the

University of Utah The University of Utah (U of U, UofU, or simply The U) is a public research university in Salt Lake City, Utah. It is the flagship institution of the Utah System of Higher Education. The university was established in 1850 as the University of De ...

. He is known for formulating the

Bateman–Horn conjecture In number theory, the Bateman–Horn conjecture is a statement concerning the frequency of prime numbers among the values of a system of polynomials, named after mathematicians Paul T. Bateman and Roger A. Horn who proposed it in 1962. It provides ...

with Paul T. Bateman on the density of

prime number A prime number (or a prime) is a natural number greater than 1 that is not a product of two smaller natural numbers. A natural number greater than 1 that is not prime is called a composite number. For example, 5 is prime because the only ways ...

values generated by systems of

polynomial In mathematics, a polynomial is an expression consisting of indeterminates (also called variables) and coefficients, that involves only the operations of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and positive-integer powers of variables. An exa ...

s. His books ''Matrix Analysis'' and ''Topics in Matrix Analysis'', co-written with Charles R. Johnson, are standard texts in advanced linear algebra.

Career

Roger Horn graduated from

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 ...

with high honors in mathematics in 1963, after which he completed his PhD 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 ...

in 1967. Horn was the founder and chair of the Department of Mathematical Sciences at

Johns Hopkins University Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hem ...

from 1972 to 1979. As chair, he held a series of short courses for a monograph series published by the

Johns Hopkins Press The Johns Hopkins University Press (also referred to as JHU Press or JHUP) is the publishing division of Johns Hopkins University. It was founded in 1878 and is the oldest continuously running university press in the United States. The press publi ...

. He invited

Gene Golub Gene Howard Golub (February 29, 1932 – November 16, 2007), was an American numerical analyst who taught at Stanford University as Fletcher Jones Professor of Computer Science and held a courtesy appointment in electrical engineering. Person ...

and

Charles Van Loan Charles Francis Van Loan (born September 20, 1947) is an emeritus professor of computer science and the Joseph C. Ford Professor of Engineering at Cornell University,

to write a monograph, which later became the seminal ''Matrix Computations'' text book. He later joined the Department of Mathematics at the

as research professor. In 2007, the journal

Linear Algebra and its Applications ''Linear Algebra and its Applications'' is a biweekly peer-reviewed mathematics journal published by Elsevier and covering matrix theory and finite-dimensional linear algebra. History The journal was established in January 1968 with A.J. Hoffma ...

published a special issue in honor of Roger Horn. He was Editor of

The American Mathematical Monthly ''The American Mathematical Monthly'' is a mathematical journal founded by Benjamin Finkel in 1894. It is published ten times each year by Taylor & Francis for the Mathematical Association of America. The ''American Mathematical Monthly'' is an e ...

during 1997–2001.

Personal life

In 1987, Horn submitted testimony to the US Senate Subcommittee on Transportation regarding the 1987 Maryland train collision which killed his 16-year-old daughter

Ceres Ceres most commonly refers to: * Ceres (dwarf planet), the largest asteroid * Ceres (mythology), the Roman goddess of agriculture Ceres may also refer to: Places Brazil * Ceres, Goiás, Brazil * Ceres Microregion, in north-central Goiás ...

who was returning to

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...

from the family home in Baltimore for her freshman year fall term final exams.

Bibliography

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References

Living people 20th-century American mathematicians 21st-century American mathematicians Cornell University alumni Stanford University alumni Johns Hopkins University faculty University of Utah faculty Place of birth missing (living people) 1942 births Linear algebraists The American Mathematical Monthly editors {{US-mathematician-stub