Peter Hilton
Encyclopedia
Peter John Hilton was a British
Great Britain
Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...

 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....

, noted for his contributions to homotopy theory and for code-breaking during the Second World War.

Life

Hilton was born in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

, and educated at St Paul's School. He won a scholarship to The Queen's College, Oxford
The Queen's College, Oxford
The Queen's College, founded 1341, is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. Queen's is centrally situated on the High Street, and is renowned for its 18th-century architecture...

 in 1940.

During World War II, as an undergraduate, Hilton was obliged to enrol in training with the Royal Artillery
Royal Artillery
The Royal Regiment of Artillery, commonly referred to as the Royal Artillery , is the artillery arm of the British Army. Despite its name, it comprises a number of regiments.-History:...

, and was scheduled for conscription
Conscription
Conscription is the compulsory enlistment of people in some sort of national service, most often military service. Conscription dates back to antiquity and continues in some countries to the present day under various names...

 in Summer 1942. Instead, he was interviewed by a team touring universities looking for mathematicians with knowledge of German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....

, and was offered a position in the Foreign Office without being told the nature of the work. The team was, in fact, recruiting on behalf of the Government Code and Cypher School. He accepted, and, aged 18, arrived at wartime codebreaking station Bletchley Park
Bletchley Park
Bletchley Park is an estate located in the town of Bletchley, in Buckinghamshire, England, which currently houses the National Museum of Computing...

 on 12 January 1942.

He was initially put to work on Naval Enigma
Enigma machine
An Enigma machine is any of a family of related electro-mechanical rotor cipher machines used for the encryption and decryption of secret messages. Enigma was invented by German engineer Arthur Scherbius at the end of World War I...

 in Hut 8
Hut 8
Hut 8 was a section at Bletchley Park tasked with solving German naval Enigma messages. The section was led initially by Alan Turing...

. In late 1942, he transferred to work on German teleprinter
Teleprinter
A teleprinter is a electromechanical typewriter that can be used to communicate typed messages from point to point and point to multipoint over a variety of communication channels that range from a simple electrical connection, such as a pair of wires, to the use of radio and microwave as the...

 ciphers. A special section known as the "Testery
Testery
The Testery was a section at Bletchley Park, the British codebreaking station during World War II. It was set up in July 1942 under Major Ralph Tester to achieve Cryptanalysis of the Lorenz cipher. The three original founding members, cryptographers, and linguists were Captain Jerry Roberts,...

" had been formed in July 1942 to work on one such cipher, codenamed "Tunny
Lorenz cipher
The Lorenz SZ40, SZ42A and SZ42B were German rotor cipher machines used by the German Army during World War II. They were developed by C. Lorenz AG in Berlin. They implemented a Vernam stream cipher...

", and Hilton was one of early members of the group. His role was to devise ways to deal with changes in Tunny, and to liaise with another section working on Tunny, the "Newmanry
Newmanry
The Newmanry was a section at Bletchley Park, the British codebreaking station during World War II. Its job was to develop and employ machine methods in Cryptanalysis of the Lorenz cipher. The Newmanry was named after its founder and head, Max Newman...

", which complemented the hand-methods of the Testery with specialised codebreaking machinery. Occasionally the same message was sent repeated, a major security blunder which Bletchley park called a "depth." Hilton derived great satisfaction from being able to look at the encoded texts coming from two separate teleprinters and from them work out the original German text.

Hilton obtained his DPhil
Doctor of Philosophy
Doctor of Philosophy, abbreviated as Ph.D., PhD, D.Phil., or DPhil , in English-speaking countries, is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities...

 in 1949 from Oxford University under the supervision of John Henry Whitehead. His dissertation was titled, "Calculation of the Homotopy Groups of An2-polyhedra".

In 1958, he became the Mason Professor of Pure Mathematics at the University of Birmingham
University of Birmingham
The University of Birmingham is a British Redbrick university located in the city of Birmingham, England. It received its royal charter in 1900 as a successor to Birmingham Medical School and Mason Science College . Birmingham was the first Redbrick university to gain a charter and thus...

. He moved to the United States in 1962 to be Professor of Mathematics at Cornell University
Cornell University
Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...

, a post he held until 1971. From 1971 to 1973, he held a joint appointment as Fellow
of the Battelle Seattle Research Center and Professor of Mathematics at
the University of Washington. September 1, 1972, he was appointed Louis D. Beaumont University Professor at Case Western Reserve University
Case Western Reserve University
Case Western Reserve University is a private research university located in Cleveland, Ohio, USA...

. September 1, 1973, he took up the appointment. In 1982, he was appointed Distinguished Professor of Mathematics at Binghamton University
Binghamton University
Binghamton University, also formally called State University of New York at Binghamton, , is a public research university in the State of New York. The University is one of the four university centers in the State University of New York system...

, becoming Emeritus in 2003. Latterly he spent each spring semester as Distinguished Professor of Mathematics at the University of Central Florida
University of Central Florida
The University of Central Florida, commonly referred to as UCF, is a metropolitan public research university located in Orlando, Florida, United States...

.

Hilton constructed the 51-letter palindrome
Palindrome
A palindrome is a word, phrase, number, or other sequence of units that can be read the same way in either direction, with general allowances for adjustments to punctuation and word dividers....

, "Doc note, I dissent. A fast never prevents a fatness. I diet on cod."

Hilton's principal research interests were in algebraic topology, homological algebra, categorical algebra, and mathematics education. He published 15 books and over 600 articles in these areas, some jointly with colleagues.

Hilton is featured in Mathematical People.

He died in Binghamton, New York
Binghamton, New York
Binghamton is a city in the Southern Tier of New York in the United States. It is near the Pennsylvania border, in a bowl-shaped valley at the confluence of the Susquehanna and Chenango Rivers...

.

Additional academic positions

  • Lecturer
    Lecturer
    Lecturer is an academic rank. In the United Kingdom, lecturer is a position at a university or similar institution, often held by academics in their early career stages, who lead research groups and supervise research students, as well as teach...

     at University of Cambridge
    University of Cambridge
    The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...

    , 1952 – 55
  • Senior Lecturer at University of Manchester
    University of Manchester
    The University of Manchester is a public research university located in Manchester, United Kingdom. It is a "red brick" university and a member of the Russell Group of research-intensive British universities and the N8 Group...

    , England, 1956 – 58
  • Mason Professor of Pure Mathematics, University of Birmingham
    University of Birmingham
    The University of Birmingham is a British Redbrick university located in the city of Birmingham, England. It received its royal charter in 1900 as a successor to Birmingham Medical School and Mason Science College . Birmingham was the first Redbrick university to gain a charter and thus...

    , England, 1958 – 62
  • Visiting Professor at the Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule at Zürich, ETH Zurich
    ETH Zurich
    The Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich or ETH Zürich is an engineering, science, technology, mathematics and management university in the City of Zurich, Switzerland....

    , 1966 – 67, 1981 – 82, 1988 – 89
  • Visiting Professor at the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences
    Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences
    The Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences is an independent division of New York University under the Faculty of Arts & Science that serves as a center for research and advanced training in computer science and mathematics...

    , New York University, 1967 – 68
  • Visiting Professor at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Autonomous University of Barcelona
    Autonomous University of Barcelona
    The Autonomous University of Barcelona is a public university mostly located in Cerdanyola, near the city of Barcelona in Catalonia, Spain....

    , 1989
  • Professeur Invité, Université de Lausanne, in 1996

Professional memberships

  • American Mathematical Society
    American Mathematical Society
    The American Mathematical Society is an association of professional mathematicians dedicated to the interests of mathematical research and scholarship, which it does with various publications and conferences as well as annual monetary awards and prizes to mathematicians.The society is one of the...

  • Mathematical Association of America
    Mathematical Association of America
    The Mathematical Association of America is a professional society that focuses on mathematics accessible at the undergraduate level. Members include university, college, and high school teachers; graduate and undergraduate students; pure and applied mathematicians; computer scientists;...

  • London Mathematical Society
    London Mathematical Society
    -See also:* American Mathematical Society* Edinburgh Mathematical Society* European Mathematical Society* List of Mathematical Societies* Council for the Mathematical Sciences* BCS-FACS Specialist Group-External links:* * *...

  • Cambridge Philosophical Society
    Cambridge Philosophical Society
    The Cambridge Philosophical Society is a scientific society at University of Cambridge. It was founded in 1819. The name derives from the medieval use of the word philosophy to denote any research undertaken outside the fields of theology and medicine...

  • Royal Statistical Society
    Royal Statistical Society
    The Royal Statistical Society is a learned society for statistics and a professional body for statisticians in the UK.-History:It was founded in 1834 as the Statistical Society of London , though a perhaps unrelated London Statistical Society was in existence at least as early as 1824...

  • Honorary member of the Mathematical Society of Belgium
  • Honorary member of Phi Beta Kappa Society
    Phi Beta Kappa Society
    The Phi Beta Kappa Society is an academic honor society. Its mission is to "celebrate and advocate excellence in the liberal arts and sciences"; and induct "the most outstanding students of arts and sciences at America’s leading colleges and universities." Founded at The College of William and...

  • First-Vice-President of the Mathematical Association of America
    Mathematical Association of America
    The Mathematical Association of America is a professional society that focuses on mathematics accessible at the undergraduate level. Members include university, college, and high school teachers; graduate and undergraduate students; pure and applied mathematicians; computer scientists;...

     1978–1980

Honors

  • Silver Medal, University of Helsinki
    University of Helsinki
    The University of Helsinki is a university located in Helsinki, Finland since 1829, but was founded in the city of Turku in 1640 as The Royal Academy of Turku, at that time part of the Swedish Empire. It is the oldest and largest university in Finland with the widest range of disciplines available...

    , 1975
  • Doctor of Humanities (hon. causa), N. University of Michigan
    University of Michigan
    The University of Michigan is a public research university located in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the United States. It is the state's oldest university and the flagship campus of the University of Michigan...

    , 1977
  • Corresponding Member, Brazilian Academy of Sciences
    Brazilian Academy of Sciences
    The Brazilian Academy of Sciences is the national academy of Brazil. It is headquartered in the city of Rio de Janeiro and was founded in 1916....

    , 1979
  • Doctor of Science (hon. causa), Memorial University of Newfoundland
    Memorial University of Newfoundland
    Memorial University of Newfoundland, is a comprehensive university located primarily in St...

    , 1983
  • Doctor of Science (hon. causa), Autonomous University of Barcelona
    Autonomous University of Barcelona
    The Autonomous University of Barcelona is a public university mostly located in Cerdanyola, near the city of Barcelona in Catalonia, Spain....

    , 1989
  • In August, 1983, an international conference on algebraic topology was held, under the auspices of the Canadian Mathematical Society, to mark Professor Hilton’s 60th Birthday. Professor Hilton was presented with a Festschrift of papers dedicated to him (London Mathematical Society
    London Mathematical Society
    -See also:* American Mathematical Society* Edinburgh Mathematical Society* European Mathematical Society* List of Mathematical Societies* Council for the Mathematical Sciences* BCS-FACS Specialist Group-External links:* * *...

     Lecture Notes, Volume 86, 1983). The American Mathematical Society
    American Mathematical Society
    The American Mathematical Society is an association of professional mathematicians dedicated to the interests of mathematical research and scholarship, which it does with various publications and conferences as well as annual monetary awards and prizes to mathematicians.The society is one of the...

     has published the proceedings under the title ‘Conference on Algebraic Topology in Honor of Peter Hilton’
  • Hilton was selected in October, 1992, to deliver the invited lecture at the ‘Georges de Rham’ day at the University of Lausanne.
  • An International Conference was held in Montreal in May, 1993, to mark the 70th birthday of Hilton. The proceedings were published as The Hilton Symposium, CRM Proceedings and Lecture Notes, Volume 6, American Mathematical Society (1994), edited by Guido Mislin.
  • In 1994, Professor Hilton was the Mahler Lecturer of the Australian Mathematical Society.
  • In the summers of 2001 and 2001, Professor Hilton was Visiting Erskine Fellow at the University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand.
  • In winter term of 2005 Professor Hilton received an appointment as Courtesy Faculty in the College of Arts and Sciences at University of South Florida.

Positions held

  • Member, Phi Beta Kappa Speakers Panel
  • Consultant, John Wiley and Sons, Inc.
  • Consultant, SRA/McGraw Hill Publishing Company
  • Consultant, Children’s Television Workshop
  • Chairman, International Advisory Board, Institut des Sciences Mathématiques, Montréal
  • Editor, Publicacions Matemàtiques
  • Editor, Expositiones Mathematicae
  • Editor, International Journal of Mathematics and Mathematical Sciences
  • Editor, Mathematical Reports

Recent positions

  • Member, American Mathematical Society Committee on Human Rights of Mathematics
  • Chairman, Mathematical Association of America Committee on Award for Distinguished Service
  • Chairman, Mathematical Association of America Committee on Award of Chauvenet Prize
  • Member, Mathematical Association of America Panel on Remediation
  • Member, Mathematical Association of America Panel on Public Representation
  • Member, Advisory Committee on Mathematics and Science, Council for Basic Education
  • Secretary, International Commission of Mathematical Instruction
  • Editor, NICO (Brussels)
  • Consultant, National Institute of Education, Department of Health Education And Welfare
  • Chairman, United States National Research Council Committee on Applied Mathematical Training
  • Member, United States Commission on Mathematical Instruction, National Research Council
  • Chairman, Mathematical Association of America Committee on National Awards
  • Principal Editor, Ergebnisse der Mathematik Series, published by Springer Verlag
  • EdChairman, National Advisory Board, Comprehensive School Mathematics Project
  • Member, Committee on the Undergraduate Program in Mathematics, Mathematical Association of America
    Mathematical Association of America
    The Mathematical Association of America is a professional society that focuses on mathematics accessible at the undergraduate level. Members include university, college, and high school teachers; graduate and undergraduate students; pure and applied mathematicians; computer scientists;...

  • Chairman, National Research Council Committee on Graduate and Postdoctoral Training in Mathematics
  • Chairman, United States Commission on Mathematical Instruction, National Research Council
  • Member, Teacher Training Panel, Committee on the Undergraduate Program in Mathematics, Mathematical Association of America
    Mathematical Association of America
    The Mathematical Association of America is a professional society that focuses on mathematics accessible at the undergraduate level. Members include university, college, and high school teachers; graduate and undergraduate students; pure and applied mathematicians; computer scientists;...

  • Joint Chairman, Cambridge Conference on School Mathematics
  • Member, National Advisory Committee, Boston University Mathematics Project
  • Member, Committee on Films, Mathematical Association of America
    Mathematical Association of America
    The Mathematical Association of America is a professional society that focuses on mathematics accessible at the undergraduate level. Members include university, college, and high school teachers; graduate and undergraduate students; pure and applied mathematicians; computer scientists;...

  • Member, Subcommittee on Translations, Mathematical Association of America
    Mathematical Association of America
    The Mathematical Association of America is a professional society that focuses on mathematics accessible at the undergraduate level. Members include university, college, and high school teachers; graduate and undergraduate students; pure and applied mathematicians; computer scientists;...

  • Member, Committee on Postdoctoral Fellowships, American Mathematical Society
    American Mathematical Society
    The American Mathematical Society is an association of professional mathematicians dedicated to the interests of mathematical research and scholarship, which it does with various publications and conferences as well as annual monetary awards and prizes to mathematicians.The society is one of the...

  • Chairman, New York State Department of Education Panel on Ph.D. Program in Mathematics (September, 1976)
  • Editor, Journal of Pure and Applied Algebra
  • Chairman, Committee to Select Phi Beta Kappa Award in Science
    Phi Beta Kappa Award in Science
    The Phi Beta Kappa Award in Science is given annually by the Phi Beta Kappa Society to authors of significant books in the fields of science and mathematics. The award was first given in 1959 to anthropologist Loren Eiseley.-Award winners:-References:...

     (Book Award)

Books

  • Peter J. Hilton, An introduction to homotopy theory, Cambridge Tracts in Mathematics and Mathematical Physics, no. 43, Cambridge, at the University Press, 1953. ISBN 0521052653
  • Peter J. Hilton, Shaun Wylie
    Shaun Wylie
    Shaun Wylie was a British mathematician and World War II codebreaker.-Early life:Wylie was born in Oxford, England, the fourth son of Sir Francis Wylie, later the first Warden of Rhodes House in Oxford. He was educated at Dragon School and then Winchester College...

    , Homology theory: An introduction to algebraic topology, Cambridge University Press
    Cambridge University Press
    Cambridge University Press is the publishing business of the University of Cambridge. Granted letters patent by Henry VIII in 1534, it is the world's oldest publishing house, and the second largest university press in the world...

    , New York, 1960. ISBN 0521094224
  • Peter Hilton, Homotopy theory and duality, Gordon and Breach, New York-London-Paris, 1965 ISBN 0677002955
  • Peter J. Hilton, Guido Mislin, Joe Roitberg, Localization of nilpotent groups and spaces, North-Holland Publishing Co., Amsterdam-Oxford, 1975. ISBN 0444107762
  • Peter Hilton, Jean Pedersen, Build your own polyhedra. Second edition, Dale Seymour Publications, Palo Alto, 1994. ISBN 020149096X
  • Peter Hilton, Derek Holton, Jean Pedersen, Mathematical reflections: In a room with many mirrors. Corrected edition, Undergraduate Texts in Mathematics
    Undergraduate Texts in Mathematics
    Undergraduate Texts in Mathematics is a series of undergraduate-level textbooks in mathematics published by Springer-Verlag. The books in this series, like the other Springer-Verlag mathematics series, are small yellow books of a standard size...

    , Springer-Verlag, New York, 1996. ISBN 0387947701
  • Peter J. Hilton, Urs Stammbach, A course in homological algebra. Second edition, Graduate Texts in Mathematics
    Graduate Texts in Mathematics
    Graduate Texts in Mathematics is a series of graduate-level textbooks in mathematics published by Springer-Verlag. The books in this series, like the other Springer-Verlag mathematics series, are yellow books of a standard size...

    , vol 4, Springer-Verlag, New York, 1997. ISBN 0-387-94823-6
  • Peter Hilton, Derek Holton, Jean Pedersen, Mathematical vistas: From a room with many windows, Undergraduate Texts in Mathematics
    Undergraduate Texts in Mathematics
    Undergraduate Texts in Mathematics is a series of undergraduate-level textbooks in mathematics published by Springer-Verlag. The books in this series, like the other Springer-Verlag mathematics series, are small yellow books of a standard size...

    , Springer-Verlag, New York, 2010. ISBN 1441928677
  • Peter Hilton, Jean Pedersen, A mathematical tapestry: Demonstrating the beautiful unity of mathematics, Cambridge University Press
    Cambridge University Press
    Cambridge University Press is the publishing business of the University of Cambridge. Granted letters patent by Henry VIII in 1534, it is the world's oldest publishing house, and the second largest university press in the world...

    , Cambridge, 2010. ISBN 0521128218

Hilton's former PhD students

  • Martin Arkowitz Cornell University
    Cornell University
    Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...

     1960
  • Imre Bokor Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich 1988
  • Bryce Brogan Case Western Reserve University
    Case Western Reserve University
    Case Western Reserve University is a private research university located in Cleveland, Ohio, USA...

     1977
  • Charles Cassidy Université Laval
    Université Laval
    Laval University is the oldest centre of education in Canada and was the first institution in North America to offer higher education in French...

     1977
  • Keith Hardie University of Cambridge
    University of Cambridge
    The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...

     1958
  • Robert Haas Case Western Reserve University
    Case Western Reserve University
    Case Western Reserve University is a private research university located in Cleveland, Ohio, USA...

     1977
  • Paul Kainen Cornell University
    Cornell University
    Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...

     1970
  • Paulo Leite Universidade de São Paulo 1979
  • Karl Lorensen State University of New York at Binghamton 1997
  • Robert Militello State University of New York at Binghamton 1991
  • Vidhyanath Rao Case Western Reserve University
    Case Western Reserve University
    Case Western Reserve University is a private research university located in Cleveland, Ohio, USA...

     1981
  • Heather Ries State University of New York at Binghamton 1992
  • Dirk Scevenels Katholieke Universiteit Leuven
    Katholieke Universiteit Leuven
    The Katholieke Universiteit Leuven is a Dutch-speaking university in Flanders, Belgium.It is located at the centre of the historic town of Leuven, and is a prominent part of the city, home to the university since 1425...

     1995
  • Christopher Schuck State University of New York at Binghamton 1992
  • Chia-Hui Shih Kuo Cornell University
    Cornell University
    Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...

     1964
  • Johnnie Slagle University of Washington
    University of Washington
    University of Washington is a public research university, founded in 1861 in Seattle, Washington, United States. The UW is the largest university in the Northwest and the oldest public university on the West Coast. The university has three campuses, with its largest campus in the University...

     1973
  • Michael Stewart University of Washington
    University of Washington
    University of Washington is a public research university, founded in 1861 in Seattle, Washington, United States. The UW is the largest university in the Northwest and the oldest public university on the West Coast. The university has three campuses, with its largest campus in the University...

     1973
  • Changchao Su State University of New York at Binghamton 2000
  • Yel-Chiang Wu Cornell University
    Cornell University
    Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...

     1967
  • S. Yahya University of Birmingham
    University of Birmingham
    The University of Birmingham is a British Redbrick university located in the city of Birmingham, England. It received its royal charter in 1900 as a successor to Birmingham Medical School and Mason Science College . Birmingham was the first Redbrick university to gain a charter and thus...

     1962

External links

  • Home page at Binghamton University
    Binghamton University
    Binghamton University, also formally called State University of New York at Binghamton, , is a public research university in the State of New York. The University is one of the four university centers in the State University of New York system...

  • "The World Celebrates Professor’s Birthday", at University of Central Florida
    University of Central Florida
    The University of Central Florida, commonly referred to as UCF, is a metropolitan public research university located in Orlando, Florida, United States...

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK