John H. Conway Receives Nemmers Prize
 

John H. Conway, von Neumann Professor of Mathematics at Princeton University, has been awarded the 1997-98 Frederic Esser Nemmers Prize in Mathematics from Northwestern University.    The Nemmers Prize in Mathematics is awarded to scholars who display "outstanding achievement in their discipline as demonstrated by major contributions to new knowledge or the development of significant new modes of analysis." The prize carries a $100,000 stipend and is presented every other year to a scholar who displays work of lasting significance in mathematics.    Conway, one of the preeminent theorists in the study of finite groups and one of the world’s foremost knot theorists, is the author of more than 10 books and more than 130 journal articles on a wide variety of mathematical subjects. He has also done important work in number theory, game theory, coding theory, tiling, and the creation of new number systems. The system of "Surreal Numbers", which he invented, is the subject of a popular book by computer scientist Donald Knuth.

Conway is also widely known as the inventor of the "Game of Life", a computer simulation of simple cellular "life", governed by simple rules which give rise to amazingly complex behavior. Conway may well have the distinction of having more books, articles and Web pages devoted to his creations than any other living mathematician.    -from Northwestern University news release      Photograph by Robert P. Matthews, courtesy of Princeton University