Daniel E. Gorenstein was an American mathematician

Mathematician

A mathematician is a person whose primary area of study is the field of mathematics. Mathematicians are concerned with quantity, structure, space, and change....

. He earned his undergraduate and graduate degrees at Harvard University

Harvard University

Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...

, where he earned his Ph.D. in 1950 under Oscar Zariski

Oscar Zariski

Oscar Zariski was a Russian mathematician and one of the most influential algebraic geometers of the 20th century.-Education:...

, introducing in his dissertation Gorenstein ring

Gorenstein ring

In commutative algebra, a Gorenstein local ring is a Noetherian commutative local ring R with finite injective dimension, as an R-module. There are many equivalent conditions, some of them listed below, most dealing with some sort of duality condition....

s. He worked on commutative algebra

Commutative algebra

Commutative algebra is the branch of abstract algebra that studies commutative rings, their ideals, and modules over such rings. Both algebraic geometry and algebraic number theory build on commutative algebra...

, and then was a major influence on the classification of finite simple groups

Classification of finite simple groups

In mathematics, the classification of the finite simple groups is a theorem stating that every finite simple group belongs to one of four categories described below. These groups can be seen as the basic building blocks of all finite groups, in much the same way as the prime numbers are the basic...

.

After teaching mathematics to military personnel at Harvard before earning his doctorate, Gorenstein held posts at Clark University

Clark University

Clark University is a private research university and liberal arts college in Worcester, Massachusetts.Founded in 1887, it is the oldest educational institution founded as an all-graduate university. Clark now also educates undergraduates...

 and Northeastern University before he began teaching at Rutgers University

Rutgers University

Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey , is the largest institution for higher education in New Jersey, United States. It was originally chartered as Queen's College in 1766. It is the eighth-oldest college in the United States and one of the nine Colonial colleges founded before the American...

 in 1969, where he remained for the rest of his life.In 1981 he collaborated with Pierre Deligne and Piotr Blass. He was the founding director of DIMACS

DIMACS

The Center for Discrete Mathematics and Theoretical Computer Science is a collaboration between Rutgers University, Princeton University, and the research firms AT&T, Bell Labs, Telcordia, and NEC. It was founded in 1989 with money from the National Science Foundation...

 in 1989, and remained as its director until his death.

Gorenstein was awarded many honors for his work on finite simple groups. He was recognised, in addition to his own research contributions such as work on signalizer functors

Signalizer functor

In mathematics, a signalizer functor gives the intersections of a potential subgroup of a finite group with the centralizers of nontrivial elements of an abelian group. The signalizer functor theorem gives conditions under which a signalizer functor comes from a subgroup...

, as a leader in putting together the classification proof, the largest collaborative piece of pure mathematics

Pure mathematics

Broadly speaking, pure mathematics is mathematics which studies entirely abstract concepts. From the eighteenth century onwards, this was a recognized category of mathematical activity, sometimes characterized as speculative mathematics, and at variance with the trend towards meeting the needs of...

 ever attempted. In 1972 he was a Guggenheim Fellow and a Fulbright Scholar; in 1978 he gained membership in the National Academy of Sciences

United States National Academy of Sciences

The National Academy of Sciences is a corporation in the United States whose members serve pro bono as "advisers to the nation on science, engineering, and medicine." As a national academy, new members of the organization are elected annually by current members, based on their distinguished and...

 and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences

American Academy of Arts and Sciences

The American Academy of Arts and Sciences is an independent policy research center that conducts multidisciplinary studies of complex and emerging problems. The Academy’s elected members are leaders in the academic disciplines, the arts, business, and public affairs.James Bowdoin, John Adams, and...

, and in 1989 won the Steele Prize for mathematical exposition.

See also

• Gorenstein–Harada theorem
  Gorenstein–Harada theorem
  In mathematical finite group theory, the Gorenstein–Harada theorem, proved by in a 464 page paper, classifies the simple finite groups of sectional 2-rank at most 4...
  
  
• Gorenstein–Walter theorem
  Gorenstein–Walter theorem
  In mathematics, the Gorenstein–Walter theorem, proved by , states that if a finite group G has a dihedral Sylow 2-subgroup, and O is the maximal normal subgroup of odd order, then G/O is isomorphic to a 2-group, or the alternating group A7, or a subgroup of PΓL22 containing PSL2 for q an odd prime...
  
  
• Peterson–Gorenstein–Zierler algorithm

External links

• Obituary: Professor Daniel Gorenstein