Onorato Timothy O'Meara (January 29, 1928 – June 17, 2018) was an American mathematician known for his work in

number theory Number theory (or arithmetic or higher arithmetic in older usage) is a branch of pure mathematics devoted primarily to the study of the integers and arithmetic function, integer-valued functions. German mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauss (1777� ...

, linear groups and

quadratic form In mathematics, a quadratic form is a polynomial with terms all of degree two ("form" is another name for a homogeneous polynomial). For example, :4x^2 + 2xy - 3y^2 is a quadratic form in the variables and . The coefficients usually belong to a ...

s. He was provost emeritus and professor emeritus of mathematics at the

University of Notre Dame The University of Notre Dame du Lac, known simply as Notre Dame ( ) or ND, is a private Catholic research university in Notre Dame, Indiana, outside the city of South Bend. French priest Edward Sorin founded the school in 1842. The main campu ...

Life

O'Meara was born in

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

and graduated from

University of Cape Town The University of Cape Town (UCT) ( af, Universiteit van Kaapstad, xh, Yunibesithi ya yaseKapa) is a public research university in Cape Town, South Africa. Established in 1829 as the South African College, it was granted full university statu ...

in 1947. He continued there for a

master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.

, then transferring 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 ...

where he obtained the Ph.D. in

mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...

in 1953. He then taught at University of Otago in

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

for three years. Subsequently he returned to New Jersey and was in the

Institute for Advanced Study The Institute for Advanced Study (IAS), located in Princeton, New Jersey, in the United States, is an independent center for theoretical research and intellectual inquiry. It has served as the academic home of internationally preeminent scholar ...

. He joined

in 1962 and became Provost. He is known for his books ''Symplectic Groups'', ''Introduction to Quadratic Forms'', and ''The Classical Groups and K-Theory'' (co-author, ). In 2008, the University of Notre Dame Mathematics Library was rededicated and named in O'Meara's honor. O'Meara died on June 17, 2018, aged 90.

Works

Selected articles

* * * * * * with Barth Pollak: * * * * * *

Books

* 1963, 2000
''Introduction to Quadratic Forms, Classics in Mathematics''
Springer, * 1974
''Lectures on Linear Groups''
American Mathematical Society, * 1978
''Symplectic Groups''
American Mathematical Society, * 1989: (with Alexander Hahn
''The Classical Groups and K-Theory''
ref> Springer,

References

"Realizing Fr. Ted's Vision" by Alexander J. Hahn
*

External links