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1/ It is with incredible sadness that I am posting that John Horton Conway has died of Coronavirus.
John Conway taught the very first class I attended at Princeton. It remains one of my life's most profound educational experiences. I still remember that day in 2005 when I
John Conway taught the very first class I attended at Princeton. It remains one of my life's most profound educational experiences. I still remember that day in 2005 when I
2/ was among approximately 40 anxious freshman who showed up to Fine Hall, sat down, and waited... until about 5 minutes after class was supposed to started. Finally, as we questioned this seemingly inauspicious start to our collegiate education, a gregarious Brit wearing
3/ a T-Shirt burst into the room and began to address the class without explanation or ceremony. This set the tone for the semester. MAT 215 had no syllabus. We were only ever assigned two problem sets for homework. Conway would arrive in clothes that looked at least
4/ a decade old and abruptly begin to lecture: and by lecture, I mean he just started talking about something that interested him. Of course, his fancies were not the fare of a normal freshman analysis course. For instance, to introduce us to topology, he spent the class
5/ discussing Alexander's horned spheres. We sat there, hanging onto his words for dear life, searching for a scrap of understanding as he took off into the mathematical stratosphere. His motto was "be crude elegantly" - find a boundary, an approximation, or a trick that
6/ dispelled superficial complexity. When we finally reached out last class, Conway broke from his usual pattern to provide a list of topics that would be covered on the final exam. As he listed them, they seemed basic -
7/ things we had to learn to have any hope of understanding his lectures. We had mastered the subject without realizing it.
Ave atque vale, John Conway. You will always be the image of genius in my mind.
Ave atque vale, John Conway. You will always be the image of genius in my mind.
