Charles Coffin Sims (April 14, 1937 – October 23, 2017J. J. O'Connor and E. F. Robertson
''Charles Sims biography''

MacTutor History of Mathematics archive The MacTutor History of Mathematics archive is a website maintained by John J. O'Connor and Edmund F. Robertson and hosted by the University of St Andrews in Scotland. It contains detailed biographies on many historical and contemporary mathemati ...

. Accessed 2018-12-20.) was an American

mathematician A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, structure, space, models, and change. History On ...

best known for his work in

group theory In abstract algebra, group theory studies the algebraic structures known as group (mathematics), groups. The concept of a group is central to abstract algebra: other well-known algebraic structures, such as ring (mathematics), rings, field ...

. Together with Donald G. Higman he discovered the

Higman–Sims group In the area of modern algebra known as group theory, the Higman–Sims group HS is a sporadic simple group of order : 29⋅32⋅53⋅7⋅11 = 44352000 : ≈ 4. The Schur multiplier has order 2, the outer automorphis ...

, one of the

sporadic group In mathematics, a sporadic group is one of the 26 exceptional groups found in the classification of finite simple groups. A simple group is a group ''G'' that does not have any normal subgroups except for the trivial group and ''G'' itself. The ...

s. The

permutation group In mathematics, a permutation group is a group ''G'' whose elements are permutations of a given set ''M'' and whose group operation is the composition of permutations in ''G'' (which are thought of as bijective functions from the set ''M'' to it ...

software developed by Sims also led to the proof of existence of the

Lyons group In the area of modern algebra known as group theory, the Lyons group ''Ly'' or Lyons-Sims group ''LyS'' is a sporadic simple group of order : 283756711313767 : = 51765179004000000 : ≈ 5. History ''Ly'' is one of the 26 spor ...

(also known as the Lyons–Sims group) and the

O'Nan group In the area of abstract algebra known as group theory, the O'Nan group ''O'N'' or O'Nan–Sims group is a sporadic simple group of order : 2934573111931 : = 460815505920 : ≈ 5. History ''O'Nan'' is one of the 26 sporadic grou ...

(also known as the O'Nan–Sims group). Sims was born and raised in

Elkhart, Indiana Elkhart ( ) is a city in Elkhart County, Indiana, United States. The city is located east of South Bend, Indiana, east of Chicago, Illinois, and north of Indianapolis, Indiana. Elkhart has the larger population of the two principal cities of th ...

, and received his

B.S. A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University ...

from the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

. He did his graduate studies at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

, where he was a student of

John G. Thompson John Griggs Thompson (born October 13, 1932) is an American mathematician at the University of Florida noted for his work in the field of finite groups. He was awarded the Fields Medal in 1970, the Wolf Prize in 1992, and the Abel Prize in 2008. ...

and received his

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...

degree in 1963. In his thesis, he enumerated ''p''-groups, giving sharp asymptotic upper and lower bounds. Sims is one of the founders of

computational group theory In mathematics, computational group theory is the study of group (mathematics), groups by means of computers. It is concerned with designing and analysing algorithms and data structures to compute information about groups. The subject has attracted ...

and is the

eponym An eponym is a person, a place, or a thing after whom or which someone or something is, or is believed to be, named. The adjectives which are derived from the word eponym include ''eponymous'' and ''eponymic''. Usage of the word The term ''epon ...

of the

Schreier–Sims algorithm The Schreier–Sims algorithm is an algorithm in computational group theory, named after the mathematicians Otto Schreier and Charles Sims. This algorithm can find the order of a finite permutation group, test membership (is a given permutation c ...

. He was a faculty member at the Department of Mathematics at

Rutgers University Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a Public university, public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's ...

from 1965 to 2007. During that period he served, in particular, as Department Chair (1982–84) and Associate Provost for Computer Planning (1984–87). Sims retired from Rutgers in 2007 and moved to

St. Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

, Florida. In 2012, he became a fellow of the

American Mathematical Society The American Mathematical Society (AMS) is an association of professional mathematicians dedicated to the interests of mathematical research and scholarship, and serves the national and international community through its publications, meetings, ...

.List of Fellows of the American Mathematical Society
retrieved 2013-07-20.

References

External links

*
Personal webpage
1937 births 2017 deaths 20th-century American mathematicians 21st-century American mathematicians Group theorists Computational group theory Harvard University alumni Rutgers University faculty Fellows of the American Mathematical Society Mathematicians from Indiana University of Michigan alumni People from Elkhart, Indiana {{US-mathematician-stub

See also

References

External links