Bernhard Neumann

Bernhard Hermann Neumann (15 October 1909 – 21 October 2002) was a German-born British-Australian mathematician, who was a leader in the study of group theory.

Early life and education Bernhard Hermann Neumann was born in Berlin, Germany, on 15 October 1909, the second child and only son of middle-class Jewish parents. His father, Richard Newumann, worked for AEG.

He attended Herderschule in Berlin-Charlottenburg from 1916 to 1928. He loved mathematics at school, and in year 10, invented his own form of three-dimensional analytic geometry. He was taught by Felix W. Behrend, whose son Felix A. Behrend became a lifelong friend, and was appointed associate professor of mathematics at the University of Melbourne.

Neumann was appointed professor, foundation chair, and head of the Department of Mathematics at the Institute of Advanced Studies at the Australian National University (ANU) in Canberra, so they moved to Australia in 1962.

Other activities Neumann was a senior research fellow at the CSIRO Division of Mathematics and Statistics from 1975 to 1977 and then honorary research fellow from 1978 until his death in 2002.

He supported lent much support to Peter O'Halloran and colleagues in the early days of the Australian Mathematics Competition, and continued his interest in ongoing competitions organised by the Australian Mathematics Trust. He was chair of Australian Mathematical Olympiad Committee from its establishment in 1980 until 1986, and was also involved in the International Mathematical Olympiads. It was largely due to his efforts that the 1988 International Mathematical Olympiad was held in Australia during its bicentennial year.

Recognition and honours Neumann was an invited speaker of the International Congress of Mathematicians in 1936 at Oslo and in 1970 at Nice.

He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1959,

Awards include: 1949: Wiskundig Genootschap te Amsterdam Prize

The BH Neumann Award (B. H. Neumann Award for Excellence in Mathematics Enrichment) has been awarded to one or more recipients by the Australian Maths Trust since 1992. It recognises AMT volunteers "who have made a significant, ongoing and vital contribution to the teaching and learning of mathematical problem-solving in Australia".

The B. H. Neumann Prize has been awarded since 1985 "for the most outstanding talk or talks presented by a student or students" at the Annual Meeting of the Australian Mathematical Society.

Works 1937: "Identical relations in groups", Mathematische Annalen 114: 506 to 26 1937: "Some remarks on infinite groups", Journal of the London Mathematical Society 12: 120 to 27 1949: "On ordered division rings", Transactions of the American Mathematical Society 22: 202 to 52 1951: "Embedding non-associative rings in division rings", Proceedings of the London Mathematical Society (3) 1: 241 to 56 1954: "An essay on free products of groups with amalgamations", Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, Series A 246: 503 to 54