Steve Simpson (mathematician)
Stephen G. Simpson | |
|---|---|
Steve Simpson at Oberwolfach, 2008 | |
| Born | September 8, 1945 |
| Alma mater | MIT |
| Known for | Reverse mathematics |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Mathematics |
| Institutions | Pennsylvania State University Vanderbilt University |
| Thesis | Admissible Ordinals and Recursion Theory |
| Doctoral advisor | Gerald Sacks |
| Doctoral students | |
Stephen George Simpson (born September 8, 1945) is an American mathematician whose research concerns the foundations of mathematics, including work in mathematical logic, recursion theory, and Ramsey theory. He is known for his extensive development of the field of reverse mathematics founded by Harvey Friedman, in which the goal is to determine which axioms are needed to prove certain mathematical theorems. He has also argued for the benefits of finitistic mathematical systems, such as primitive recursive arithmetic, which do not include actual infinity.
A conference in honor of Simpson's 70th birthday was organized in May 2016.