Simon P. Norton

Simon P. Norton
Born	28 February 1952
Nationality	British
Fields	Mathematics
Alma mater	University of Cambridge
Thesis	F and Other Simple Groups (1976)
Doctoral advisor	John Horton Conway

Simon Phillips Norton (born 28 February 1952^[1]) is a mathematician in Cambridge, England, who works on finite simple groups. He constructed the Harada–Norton group and in 1979 together with John Conway proved there is a connection between the Monster group and the j-function in number theory. They dubbed this monstrous moonshine and made some conjectures later proved by Richard Borcherds. Norton was one of the authors of the ATLAS of Finite Groups. He also made several early discoveries in Conway's Game of Life,^[2] and invented the game Snort.

Norton is the subject of the biography The Genius In My Basement, written by his Cambridge tenant, Alexander Masters.^[3] He is also an occasional contributor to Word Ways: The Journal of Recreational Linguistics.

References

1. from the Masters biography
2. Poundstone, William (1985), The recursive universe: cosmic complexity and the limits of scientific knowledge, Contemporary Books, p. 7, ISBN 978-0-8092-5202-2
3. Masters, Alexander (1 September 2011), The Genius in My Basement, London: HarperCollins, ISBN 978-0-00-724338-9, LCCN 2011535364, OCLC 739420610

External links

• Simon Phillips Norton at the Mathematics Genealogy Project
• Simon P. Norton's results at the International Mathematical Olympiad
• Simon Norton at the Cambridge mathematics department
• Simon Norton at LifeWiki
• Turner, Jenny (24 August 2011). "The Genius in My Basement by Alexander Masters - review". The Guardian. Retrieved 31 August 2015.
• Feature profile on National Public Radio's Weekend Edition Sunday, 02/26/12 The Genius In My Basement
• Hubbard, Frances (10 September 2011). "A life that doesn't add up: The Cambridge maths genius who is now a recluse living on tinned mackerel". Daily Mail. Retrieved 31 August 2015.