Simon Phillips Norton (28 February 1952 – 14 February 2019)
Obituary: Daily Telegraph was a mathematician in

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...

, England, who worked on finite

simple group SIMPLE Group Limited is a conglomeration of separately run companies that each has its core area in International Consulting. The core business areas are Legal Services, Fiduciary Activities, Banking Intermediation and Corporate Service. The d ...

Education

Simon Norton was born into a

Sephardi Sephardic (or Sephardi) Jews (, ; lad, Djudíos Sefardíes), also ''Sepharadim'' , Modern Hebrew: ''Sfaradim'', Tiberian: Səp̄āraddîm, also , ''Ye'hude Sepharad'', lit. "The Jews of Spain", es, Judíos sefardíes (or ), pt, Judeus sefa ...

family of Iraqi descent, the youngest of three brothers. From 1964 he was a

King's Scholar A King's Scholar is a foundation scholar (elected on the basis of good academic performance and usually qualifying for reduced fees) of one of certain public schools. These include Eton College; The King's School, Canterbury; The King's School ...

Eton College Eton College () is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school in Eton, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1440 by Henry VI of England, Henry VI under the name ''Kynge's College of Our Ladye of Eton besyde Windesore'',Nevill, p. 3 ff. i ...

, where he earned a reputation as an eccentric mathematical genius. He obtained an external first-class degree in Pure Mathematics at the University of London while still at the school, commuting to

Royal Holloway College Royal Holloway, University of London (RHUL), formally incorporated as Royal Holloway and Bedford New College, is a public research university and a constituent college of the federal University of London. It has six schools, 21 academic departm ...

. He also represented the United Kingdom three years running at the

International Mathematical Olympiad The International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) is a mathematical olympiad for pre- university students, and is the oldest of the International Science Olympiads. The first IMO was held in Romania in 1959. It has since been held annually, excep ...

, and winning a gold medal each time. He then went up to

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any college at either Cambridge or Oxford. ...

, and achieved a first in the final examinations.

Career and Life

He stayed at Cambridge, working on

finite group 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 ma ...

s. Norton was one of the authors of the

ATLAS of Finite Groups The ''ATLAS of Finite Groups'', often simply known as the ''ATLAS'', is a group theory book by John Horton Conway, Robert Turner Curtis, Simon Phillips Norton, Richard Alan Parker and Robert Arnott Wilson (with computational assistance from J. ...

. He constructed the

Harada–Norton group In the area of modern algebra known as group theory, the Harada–Norton group ''HN'' is a sporadic simple group of order : 214365671119 : = 273030912000000 : ≈ 3. History and properties ''HN'' is one of the 26 sporadic groups ...

and in 1979 together with John Conway proved there is a connection between the

Monster group In the area of abstract algebra known as group theory, the monster group M (also known as the Fischer–Griess monster, or the friendly giant) is the largest sporadic simple group, having order 24632059761121331719232931414759 ...

and the ''j''-function in number theory. They dubbed this "

monstrous moonshine In mathematics, monstrous moonshine, or moonshine theory, is the unexpected connection between the monster group ''M'' and modular functions, in particular, the ''j'' function. The term was coined by John Conway and Simon P. Norton in 1979. ...

", and made some conjectures later proved by

Richard Borcherds Richard Ewen Borcherds (; born 29 November 1959) is a British mathematician currently working in quantum field theory. He is known for his work in lattices, group theory, and infinite-dimensional algebras, for which he was awarded the Fields Me ...

. Norton also made several early discoveries in

Conway's Game of Life The Game of Life, also known simply as Life, is a cellular automaton devised by the British mathematician John Horton Conway in 1970. It is a zero-player game, meaning that its evolution is determined by its initial state, requiring no furthe ...

, and invented the game Snort. In 1985, Cambridge University did not renew his contract. Norton is the subject of the biography ''The Genius in My Basement'', written by his Cambridge tenant,

Alexander Masters Alexander Wright Masters is an English author, screenwriter, and worker with the homeless. He lives in Cambridge, United Kingdom. Masters is the son of authors Dexter Masters and Joan Brady. He was educated at Bedales School, and took a first ...

, which describes his eccentric lifestyle and his life-long obsession with buses. He was also an occasional contributor to '' Word Ways: The Journal of Recreational Linguistics''. Norton was very interested in transport issues and was a member of Subterranea Britannica. He coordinated the local group of the

Campaign for Better Transport (United Kingdom) Campaign for Better Transport is an advocacy group in the United Kingdom that promotes sustainable transport, particularly bus and rail services. It was launched as Transport 2000 in February 1973 by the National Union of Railwaymen with the Rai ...

, and had done so since the organisation was known as Transport 2000, writing most of the newsletter for the local Cambridge group and tirelessly campaigning for efficient, inclusive and environmentally friendly public transport in the region and across the United Kingdom. He collapsed and died in north London, aged 66, of a heart condition on 14 February 2019.

Selected publications

* 1995: (with C. J. Cummins) * 1996: * 1996: * 1998: * 2001: * 2002: (with Robert A. Wilson)

References

External links

* *
Simon Norton
at the Cambridge mathematics department *
Feature profile on National Public Radio's Weekend Edition Sunday, 02/26/12 ''The Genius In My Basement''

Cambridgeshire Campaign for Better Transport (Archive)
coordinated by Simon Norton, who authored the bulk of the newsletters and reports. 1952 births 2019 deaths British people of Iraqi-Jewish descent People educated at Eton College Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge 20th-century English mathematicians 21st-century English mathematicians Group theorists Cellular automatists International Mathematical Olympiad participants Cambridge mathematicians {{UK-mathematician-stub