Donald B. Gillies

Donald Bruce Gillies (October 15, 1928 – July 17, 1975) was a Canadian computer scientist and mathematician who worked in the fields of computer design, game theory, and minicomputer programming environments.

For other people named Donald Gillies, see Donald A. Gillies.
For other people named similarly, see Donald Gillis (disambiguation).
Donald B. Gillies
Born
Donald Bruce Gillies

(1928-10-15)15 October 1928
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Died17 July 1975(1975-07-17) (aged 46)
Urbana, Illinois, USA
NationalityCanadian
Alma materUniversity of Toronto
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Princeton University
Scientific career
FieldsMathematics, Computer Science
InstitutionsUniversity of Illinois,
Stanford (sabbatical),
National Research Development Corporation, UK
Doctoral advisorJohn von Neumann

Early life and education

Donald B. Gillies was born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, to John Zachariah Gillies (a Canadian) and Anne Isabelle Douglas MacQueen (an American). He attended the University of Toronto Schools, a laboratory school originally affiliated with the University. Gillies attended the University of Toronto from 1946 to 1950, majoring in Mathematics.

Gillies ranked among the top five participants in the William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition held in 1950.[1]

Career

Gillies moved to England for two years to work for the National Research Development Corporation. He returned to the US in 1956, married Alice E. Dunkle,[2] and began a job as a professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

The Math Department at UIUC celebrated the new primes with a postal meter cancellation stamp — until Appel and Haken proved the 4-color theorem in 1976.

Gillies found three new Mersenne primes,[3] one of which was the largest prime number known at the time.[4]

Death and legacy

Gillies died unexpectedly at age 46 on July 17, 1975, of a rare viral myocarditis.

In 2006, the Donald B. Gillies Chair Professorship was established in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Illinois. Vikram Adve was invested as the second chair professor of the endowment in 2018.[5] The Department of Computer Science awarded a Memorial Achievement Award to Gillies in 2011.[6]

See also

References
  1. Bush, L. E. (1950). "The William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition". The American Mathematical Monthly. 57 (7): 467–470. doi:10.2307/2308299. ISSN 0002-9890. JSTOR 2308299.
  2. Engagement Announcement (New York Times), Alice E. Dunkle is Betrothed to Donald Gillies, a Mathematician, December 10, 1955.
  3. Gillies, Donald B. (Jan 1964). "Three new Mersenne primes and a statistical theory". Mathematics of Computation. 18 (5): 93–97. doi:10.2307/2003409. JSTOR 2003409.
  4. "History Timeline". cs.illinois.edu. Retrieved 2020-11-18.
  5. "vikram adve invested donald b gillies professor computer science". 2018-04-15.
  6. Memorial Achievement Award Archived 2015-03-18 at Archive.today
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