Thomas William Körner (born 17 February 1946) is a British
pure mathematician and the author of three books on popular mathematics. He is titular Professor of
Fourier Analysis
In mathematics, Fourier analysis () is the study of the way general functions may be represented or approximated by sums of simpler trigonometric functions. Fourier analysis grew from the study of Fourier series, and is named after Josep ...
in 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 ...
and a Fellow of
Trinity Hall. He is the son of the philosopher
Stephan Körner
Stephan Körner, FBA (26 September 1913 – 17 August 2000) was a British philosopher, who specialised in the work of Kant, the study of concepts, and in the philosophy of mathematics.
Born to a Jewish family in what would soon become Czechosl ...
and of
Edith Körner.
He studied at
Trinity Hall, Cambridge
Trinity Hall (formally The College or Hall of the Holy Trinity in the University of Cambridge) is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge.
It is the fifth-oldest surviving college of the university, having been founded in 1350 by ...
, and wrote his PhD thesis ''Some Results on Kronecker, Dirichlet and Helson Sets'' there in 1971, studying under
Nicholas Varopoulos
Nicholas Theodore Varopoulos ( el, Νικόλαος Βαρόπουλος, ''Nikolaos Varopoulos'', also ''Nicolas Varopoulos''; born 16 June 1940) is a Greek mathematician, who works on harmonic analysis and especially analysis on Lie groups.
Va ...
. In 1972 he won the
Salem Prize
The Salem Prize, in memory of Raphael Salem, is awarded each year to young researchers for outstanding contributions to the field of analysis. It is awarded by the School of Mathematics at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton and was fo ...
.
He has written academic mathematics books aimed at undergraduates:
*''Fourier Analysis''
*''Exercises for Fourier Analysis''
*''A Companion to Analysis''
*''Vectors, Pure and Applied''
*''Calculus for the Ambitious''
He has also written three books aimed at secondary school students, the popular 1996 title ''The Pleasures of Counting'', ''Naive Decision Making'' (published 2008) on
probability
Probability is the branch of mathematics concerning numerical descriptions of how likely an Event (probability theory), event is to occur, or how likely it is that a proposition is true. The probability of an event is a number between 0 and ...
,
statistics
Statistics (from German language, German: ''wikt:Statistik#German, Statistik'', "description of a State (polity), state, a country") is the discipline that concerns the collection, organization, analysis, interpretation, and presentation of ...
and
game theory
Game theory is the study of mathematical models of strategic interactions among rational agents. Myerson, Roger B. (1991). ''Game Theory: Analysis of Conflict,'' Harvard University Press, p.&nbs1 Chapter-preview links, ppvii–xi It has appli ...
, and ''Where Do Numbers Come From?''
''Where Do Numbers Come From?''
Cambridge University Press (published October 2019).
External links
Professor Körner's website
References
1946 births
Living people
Alumni of Trinity Hall, Cambridge
Fellows of Trinity Hall, Cambridge
20th-century British mathematicians
21st-century British mathematicians
Mathematical analysts
Cambridge mathematicians
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