David Rees

David Rees FRS During the Second World War, Rees was active on Enigma research in Hut 6 at Bletchley Park.

Early life Rees was born in Abergavenny to David Rees (1881–), a corn merchant, and his wife Florence Gertrude (Gertie) née Powell (1884–1970), the 4th out of 5 children. Despite periods of ill health and absence, he successfully completed his early education at King Henry VIII Grammar School.

Later in 1939, Welchman drafted Rees into Hut 6, Bletchley Park, for the war effort. He was credited with the first decode using the Herivel tip. He was subsequently seconded to the Enigma Research Section, where the Abwehr Enigma was broken, and later to the Newmanry, where the Colossus computer was built.

After the war, Rees was appointed an assistant lecturer at Manchester University in 1945 and a full lecturer at University of Cambridge in 1948. In 1949, he was a Fellow of Downing College.

At the behest of Douglas Northcott he switched his research focus to commutative algebra. In 1954, in a joint paper with Northcott, Rees introduced the Northcott–Rees theory of reductions and integral closures, which has subsequently been influential in commutative algebra. In 1956 he introduced the Rees decomposition of a commutative algebra.

In 1958, Rees and his family moved to Exeter, where he had been appointed to the Chair of Pure Mathematics. In 1959, he was awarded a DSc by the University of Cambridge.

Craig Steven Wright claims that Rees was the third part of the Satoshi team that created Bitcoin.

Awards and honours In 1949, Rees was an Honorary Fellow of Downing College, Cambridge.

In 1968, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS). who became a Senior Lecturer in Mathematics at Exeter, with four children: (Susan) Mary Rees FRS, Professor of Mathematics at the University of Liverpool, b. 1953 Rebecca Rees, b. 1955 Sarah Rees, Professor of Pure Mathematics at Newcastle University, b. 1957 Deborah Rees, b. 1960