Brian Hartley

Brian Hartley (15 May 1939 – 8 October 1994) was a British mathematician specialising in group theory.[3][4][1]

For the South African cricketer, see Brian Hartley (cricketer).
For the fictional character Brian Hartley, see All Tied Up. For the biochemist Brian Hartley, see Brian S. Hartley. For the Kenyan sports shooter, see Brian Carr-Hartley.

Brian Hartley
Born(1939-05-15)15 May 1939
Died8 October 1994(1994-10-08) (aged 55)
Alma materUniversity of Cambridge
Scientific career
Institutions
Doctoral advisorPhilip Hall[1]
Doctoral studentsIan Stewart[1][2]

Education

Hartley's PhD thesis was completed in 1964 at the University of Cambridge under Philip Hall's supervision.[1]

Career and research

Hartley spent a year at the University of Chicago, and another at MIT before being appointed as a lecturer at the newly established University of Warwick in 1966, and was promoted to reader in 1973. He moved to a chair at School of Mathematics at the University of Manchester in 1977 where he served as head of the Mathematics department between 1982 and 1984.

He published more than 100 papers, mostly on group theory, and collaborated widely with other mathematicians. His main interest was locally finite groups where he used his wide knowledge of finite groups to prove properties of infinite groups which shared some of the features of finite groups. One recurrent theme appearing in his work was the relationship between the structure of groups and their subgroups consisting of elements fixed by particular automorphisms.

Hartley is perhaps best known by undergraduates for his book Rings, Modules and Linear Algebra, with Trevor Hawkes.[5]

Personal life

Hartley was a keen hill walker, and it was while descending Helvellyn in the English Lake District that he collapsed with a heart attack and died.

Awards and honours

The 'Brian Hartley Room' at the School of Mathematics at Manchester is named in his honour.

References
  1. Brian Hartley at the Mathematics Genealogy Project
  2. Stewart, Ian (1969). Subideals of Lie algebras (PhD thesis). University of Warwick.
  3. T. O. Hawkes and J. E. Roseblade, Obituary: Brian Hartley 1939-94, Bulletin of the London Mathematical Society (2001), 33: 228-242 Cambridge University Press doi:10.1112/blms/33.2.228
  4. O'Connor, John J.; Robertson, Edmund F., "Brian Hartley", MacTutor History of Mathematics archive, University of St Andrews.
  5. Rings, Modules and Linear Algebra ISBN 9780412098109


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