About William Boone
Lived 1920 – 1983 (aged 63). William Boone was an American mathematician, philosopher and university teacher, known for Boone–Higman theorem, Boone–Rogers theorem and Novikov–Boone theorem.
William Werner Boone (16 January 1920 in Cincinnati – 14 September 1983 in Urbana, Illinois) was an American mathematician. He completed his undergrad degree as a part time student at the University of Cincinnati.
Alonzo Church was his Ph.D. advisor at Princeton, and Kurt Gödel was his friend at the Institute for Advanced Study.
Pyotr Novikov showed in 1955 that there exists a finitely presented group G such that the word problem for G is undecidable. A different proof was obtained by Boone in a paper published in 1958.
Selected publications W. W. Boone, Decision problems about algebraic and logical systems as a whole and recursively enumerable degrees of unsolvability. 1968 Contributions to Math. Logic (Colloquium, Hannover, 1966), North-Holland, Amsterdam. W. W. Boone, Roger Lyndon, Frank Cannonito, Word Problems: Decision Problem in Group Theory, North-Holland, 1973.
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Frequently asked questions
Who was William Boone?
mathematician (1920–1983)
When was William Boone born?
William Boone was born on 16 January 1920 in Cincinnati.
When did William Boone die?
William Boone died on 14 September 1983 in Urbana.
What was William Boone's occupation?
William Boone was a mathematician, philosopher and university teacher.
What was William Boone known for?
William Boone was known for Boone–Higman theorem, Boone–Rogers theorem and Novikov–Boone theorem.
What nationality was William Boone?
William Boone was American.
Sources & further reading
· DBpedia: William Boone (mathematician)
Cite this page
APA: Biography.guide. (2026). William Boone. https://biography.guide/william-boone-mathematician/
MLA: "William Boone." Biography.guide, https://biography.guide/william-boone-mathematician/.
Chicago: "William Boone." Biography.guide. https://biography.guide/william-boone-mathematician/.
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