Ronald Graham

For other people named Ronald Graham, see Ronald Graham (disambiguation).

Ronald Graham
Graham in 1998
Born
Ronald Lewis Graham

(1935-10-31)October 31, 1935
Taft, California, U.S.
DiedJuly 6, 2020(2020-07-06) (aged 84)
San Diego, California, U.S.
Alma mater
Known for
Spouse
​
(m. 1983)​
Awards
Scientific career
Fields
Institutions
Thesis On Finite Sums of Rational Numbers  (1962)
Doctoral advisorDerrick Henry Lehmer

Ronald Lewis Graham (October 31, 1935 – July 6, 2020)[1] was an American mathematician credited by the American Mathematical Society as "one of the principal architects of the rapid development worldwide of discrete mathematics in recent years".[2] He was president of both the American Mathematical Society and the Mathematical Association of America, and his honors included the Leroy P. Steele Prize for lifetime achievement and election to the National Academy of Sciences.

After graduate study at the University of California, Berkeley, Graham worked for many years at Bell Labs and later at the University of California, San Diego. He did important work in scheduling theory, computational geometry, Ramsey theory, and quasi-randomness,[3] and many topics in mathematics are named after him. He published six books and about 400 papers, and had nearly 200 co-authors, including many collaborative works with his wife Fan Chung and with Paul Erdős.

Graham has been featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not! for being not only "one of the world's foremost mathematicians", but also an accomplished trampolinist and juggler. He served as president of the International Jugglers' Association.[3][4][5]

  1. ^ O'Connor, John J.; Robertson, Edmund F. "Ronald Graham". MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive. University of St Andrews.
  2. ^ "2003 Steele Prizes" (PDF). Notices of the American Mathematical Society. Vol. 50, no. 4. April 2003. pp. 462–467. Archived from the original (PDF) on February 6, 2011. Retrieved July 2, 2014.
  3. ^ a b Horgan, John (March 1997). "Profile: Ronald L. Graham – Juggling Act". Scientific American. 276 (3): 28–30. doi:10.1038/scientificamerican0397-28. Archived from the original on July 17, 2020. Retrieved July 8, 2020.
  4. ^ "Ron Graham Obituary". International Jugglers' Association. July 9, 2020. Retrieved July 13, 2020.
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference Calit2 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).