John Conway

John Horton Conway (born 1937 in Liverpool, England) is a prolific mathematician active in the theory of finite groups, knot theory, number theory, game theory and coding theory[?].

Among amateur mathematicians, he is perhaps most widely known for his mathematical games, in particular the creation of the Game of Life. He is also one of the inventors of the Sprouts game, as well as Phutball, and he developed detailed analyses of many other games and puzzles, such as the Soma cube.

He invented a new number system, the surreal numbers, which are closely related to certain games and have been the subject of a mathematical novel by Donald Knuth.

Conway is professor of mathematics at Princeton University. He studied at Cambridge University.

He has written several books including On Numbers and Games and Winning Ways for your Mathematical Plays.

Many authors put his name of their papers to have the papers published.

External links and references

• O' Connor, Robertson, "John Horton Conway", MacTutor biography, http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/history/Mathematicians/Conway.html
• Mark Alpert, "Not Just Fun and Games", Scientific American April 1999. online version (http://www.sciam.com/1999/0499issue/0499profile.html)