John Horton Conway

As an inventive and happy mathematician, John Horton Conway was born on December, 26, 1937 in Liverpool. becoming playful with numbers right from childhood, he was educated at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, under the supervision of Harold Davenport. Conway made a lot of innovations and blazed throughout his career as a renowned theorist.

Conway then brought the ”Game of Life” in 1970 in Cellular Automata which brought more than entertainment. This game turned into a deep study in the thinking that is capable of producing intricate structure: one more vivid instance of the way in which Conway’s mind captured order where most people saw chaos and engaged in deliberate amusement where others would otherwise give in to frustration.

Conway’s inquisitive mind made paramount contributions in different areas of mathematics, well recognized in group theory, for introducing the “Conway groups” His work in the theory of surreal numbers and the combinatorial game theory show how he was able to reason from the abstract with wonder and accuracy.

Main achievements include Conway receiving Fellow of the Royal Society, Berwick Prize, and Leroy P. Steele Prize. Apart from his academic success, the public knew him for his liveliness, and the way he introduced mathematics to people, making it colourful and interesting for everyone.

Conway died on April 11, 2020 which is a great loss for the mathematical society. His ideas and passion for teaching remain indispensable even today, so it is appropriate to say that his work made a playful yet extremely thoughtful contribution to people’s idea of mathematics.