Ivan Morton Niven (October 25, 1915 – May 9, 1999) was a Canadian-American number theorist best remembered for his work on Waring's problem. He worked for many years as a professor at the University of Oregon, and was president of the Mathematical Association of America. He wrote several books on mathematics.
Ivan M. Niven | |
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Born | October 25, 1915 Vancouver, Canada |
Died | May 9, 1999 | (aged 83)
Known for | Niven number Niven's constant Niven's proof Niven's theorem Eilenberg–Niven theorem |
Awards | Lester R. Ford Award (1970) |
Academic background | |
Alma mater | |
Doctoral advisor | Leonard Eugene Dickson[1] |
Academic work | |
Institutions | University of Oregon |
Doctoral students | Margaret Maxfield |
Niven was born in Vancouver. He did his undergraduate studies at the University of British Columbia and was awarded his doctorate in 1938 from the University of Chicago.[1] He was a member of the University of Oregon faculty from 1947 to his retirement in 1981. He was president of the Mathematical Association of America (MAA) from 1983 to 1984.[2]
He died in 1999 in Eugene, Oregon.
Niven completed the solution of most of Waring's problem in 1944.[3] This problem, based on a 1770 conjecture by Edward Waring, consists of finding the smallest number such that every positive integer is the sum of at most -th powers of positive integers. David Hilbert had proved the existence of such a in 1909; Niven's work established the value of for all but finitely many values of .
Niven gave an elementary proof that is irrational in 1947.[4]
Niven numbers, Niven's constant, and Niven's theorem are named for Niven.
He has an Erdős number of 1 because he coauthored a paper with Paul Erdős, on partial sums of the harmonic series.[5]
Niven received the University of Oregon's Charles E. Johnson Award in 1981. He received the MAA Distinguished Service Award[6] in 1989.
He won a Lester R. Ford Award in 1970.[7] In 2000, the asteroid 12513 Niven, discovered in 1998, was named after him.[8][9]