Peter M. Neumann has died | Hacker News Reader

Peter M. Neumann has died

rjlipton.wordpress.com

141 pointsfurcyd18 comments

One of my favourite lecturers at Oxford. I remember him for his beautifully written lecture notes. Here are some examples:

An Introduction to Pure Mathematics: https://www.dropbox.com/s/txa2yoqp68vkkln/PrelimIntro2012-Ve...

Linear Algebra 2: https://www.dropbox.com/s/18wqskjtcr0mbw7/Mods-Linear-Algebr...

An Introduction to Fields: https://www.dropbox.com/s/zn0cnv762vu21op/Fields2013-Ver2.pd...

> One of my favourite lecturers at Oxford.

Same here. I was part of a room full of brand-new undergraduates to whom Dr Neumann did an excellent job of explaining Real Analysis - something that few senior fellows would have been willing to do. A class act.

Hey this is gold. I've been meaning to learn stuff I would have learned if I'd done Maths instead of Engineering, and it's quite useful to have the early courses. Have you got more? Book names welcome too, I'm sure I can find them.

Peter was so incredibly supportive. He wasn't my DPhil supervisor (a DPhil is the Oxford equivalent of a PhD) but he urged me to start writing up and spent an hour with me each week during that period encouraging me to get my DPhil finished and submit. He would also listen to me practice my talks for the kinderseminar - all far beyond the call of duty. He was a bit like a kindly grandfather to all us algebraists and had a wonderful way of talking about and explaining group theory.

DPhil = Doctor of Philosophy

PhD = philosophiae doctor = "Doctor of Philosophy" in Latin

it's not an equivalent, it's the exact same title :-)

Don't know about the UK,but here in Denmark they are quite different degrees (even if they have the same etymological origin). A PhD. here does not give you the title Doctor, while a doctorate does.

A PhD does allow you to use the title in the UK. Ironically medical doctors are allowed to drop the title if they're qualified surgeons.

I always feel I have to qualify, because when you say you have a DPhil, people often don't know what you are talking about! Technically I have a DPhil not a PhD though even though they amount to the same thing.

Great teacher, took Galois theory course with him. Very patient, explained clearly, answered questions from a group in a way that helped everyone to understand better. Made time for everyone. Sorry to hear this news.

Note that this is "M" of Oxford, not "G" of Multics and the RISKS Digest.

Also not to be confused with Peter Norvig of Google.

Why on earth would anybody confuse the two?

If you weren't confused, then it worked!

Not to be confused with Peter G. Neumann, probably the most influential voice on computer security in the 1980s and early 1990s:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RISKS_Digest

Lol, I literally fell victim to this.

I don't know if Peter G. Neumann remains "the most influential voice on computer security" at this point in time (January 2021) but he is still an important in the field, still a mentor, still doing RISKS, and still a voice of reason.

Very sad to hear this. I was fortunate enough to be in his college as an undergraduate and have him for tutorials. He was a great tutor and a great person.

His family is interesting. His father, his mother and 3 of his siblings were/are all mathematicians. Only one sibling isn't.

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