Peter Winkler
American mathematician
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Peter Mann Winkler is a research mathematician, author of books on mathematical puzzles and of more than 130 research papers in mathematics[1] and patent holder in a broad range of applications, ranging from cryptography to marine navigation.[2] His research areas include discrete mathematics, theory of computation and probability theory. He is currently the William Morrill Professor of Mathematics and Computer Science at Dartmouth College.[3][4]
1946 (age 79–80)
- Harvard University (BA)
- Yale University (PhD)
- David P. Robbins Prize (2011)
Peter Winkler | |
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| Born | Peter Mann Winkler 1946 (age 79–80) |
| Alma mater |
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| Awards |
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| Scientific career | |
| Institutions | Stanford Emory University Bell Labs Dartmouth College |
| Thesis | Assignment of Skolem Functions for Model-Complete Theories (1975) |
| Abraham Robinson Angus Macintyre | |
Education and career
Peter Winkler studied mathematics at Harvard University and later received his PhD in 1975 from Yale University under the supervision of Angus McIntyre.[5] He has also served as an assistant professor at Stanford, full professor and chair at Emory and as a mathematics research director at Bell Labs and Lucent Technologies.[2] He was visiting professor at the Technische Universität Darmstadt.[6]
Puzzle books
Winkler has published three books on mathematical puzzles:
- Mathematical Puzzles: A connoisseur's collection[7][8] (A K Peters, 2004, ISBN 978-1-56881-201-4, translated to German and Russian)
- Mathematical Mind-Benders[9] (A K Peters, 2007, ISBN 978-1-56881-336-3)
- Mathematical Puzzles (A K Peters, 2021, ISBN 978-0-36720-693-2).
Winkler is widely considered to be a pre eminent scholar in this domain. He was the Visiting Distinguished Chair for Public Dissemination of Mathematics at the National Museum of Mathematics (MoMath), gave topical talks at the Gathering 4 Gardner conferences, and wrote novel papers related to some of these puzzles.
Bridge at the Enigma Club
Winkler's book Bridge at the Enigma Club[10] was a runner up for the 2011 Master Point Press Book Of The Year award.[11]
Recognition
In 2011, Winkler received the David P. Robbins Prize of the Mathematical Association of America as coauthor of one of two papers[12] in the American Mathematical Monthly.[13]
Paul Erdős anecdote
According to The Man Who Loved Only Numbers, a biography of Paul Erdős, he attended the bar mitzvah celebration for Peter Winkler's twins, and Winkler's mother-in-law tried to throw Erdős out:
"Erdös came to my twins' bar mitzvah, notebook in hand," said Peter Winkler, a colleague of Graham's at AT&T. "He also brought gifts for my children--he loved kids--and behaved himself very well. But my mother-in-law tried to throw him out. She thought he was some guy who wandered in off the street, in a rumpled suit, carrying a pad under his arm. It is entirely possible that he proved a theorem or two during the ceremony."[14]