Editing Max Newman

{{Short description|English mathematician}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2021}}
{{Use British English|date=March 2012}}
{{Infobox scientist
| birth_name        = Maxwell Herman Alexander Neumann
| name              = Max Newman
| honorific_suffix  = {{postnominals|country=GBR|FRS|size=100%}}
| image             = Max Newman.jpg
| image_size        = 
| caption           = 
| birth_date        = {{birth date|1897|2|7|df=y}}<ref name="odnb">{{Cite ODNB |first = Shaun|last = Wylie|editor1-first = I. J|editor1-last = Good| title = Newman, Maxwell Herman Alexander (1897–1984)| doi = 10.1093/ref:odnb/31494 | year = 2004 }}</ref>
| birth_place       = [[Chelsea, London]], England
| death_date        = {{death date and age|1984|2|22|1897|2|7|df=y}}
| death_place       = [[Cambridge]], England
| prizes            = [[Fellow of the Royal Society]] (1939)<ref name="frs"/><br />[[Sylvester Medal]] (1958)<br />[[De Morgan Medal]] (1962)
| field             = [[Mathematics]]
| work_institution  = [[University of Cambridge]]<br />[[Victoria University of Manchester|University of Manchester]]<br>[[Princeton University]]
| alma_mater        = [[St John's College, Cambridge]]
| doctoral_advisor  = 
| doctoral_students = [[Sze-Tsen Hu]] <br> [[Gilbert de Beauregard Robinson|Gilbert Robinson]] <br> [[Hsien Chung Wang]]<ref name="mactutor">{{MacTutor Biography|id=Newman|title=Max Newman}}</ref><ref name="mathgene">{{MathGenealogy|id=18585}}</ref>
| known_for         = ''Elements of the topology of plane sets of points''<ref name="topology">{{cite book |author=Newman, Max |title=Elements of the topology of plane sets of points |publisher=Greenwood Press |location=Westport, Conn |year=1939 |isbn=0-313-24956-3 }}</ref><br />[[Newman's lemma]]<br />[[Newmanry]] section at [[Bletchley Park]] <br />[[Heath Robinson (codebreaking machine)]]<br>[[Colossus computer]]<br>[[Newman's problem]]
| spouse            = {{plainlist|
* {{marriage|[[Lyn Irvine]]|1934|1973|reason=died}}
* Margaret Penrose
}}
| children          = Edward and [[William Newman (computer scientist)|William]]
}}

'''Maxwell Herman Alexander Newman''', [[Fellow of the Royal Society|FRS]]<ref name="frs">{{Cite journal | last1 = Adams | first1 = J. F. | author-link = Frank Adams| doi = 10.1098/rsbm.1985.0015 | title = Maxwell Herman Alexander Newman. 7 February 1897–22 February 1984 | journal = [[Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society]]| volume = 31 | pages = 436–452| year = 1985 | s2cid = 62649711 }}</ref> (7 February 1897 – 22 February 1984), generally known as '''Max Newman''', was a British [[mathematician]] and [[Cryptanalysis|codebreaker]]. His work in World War II led to the construction of [[Colossus computer|Colossus]],<ref name="colossus">{{cite book |title=Colossus: The secrets of Bletchley Park's code-breaking computers |publisher=Oxford University Press, USA |year=2010 |isbn=978-0-19-957814-6 }}</ref> the world's first operational, [[Computer program|programmable]] [[electronics|electronic]] [[computer]], and he established the [[Royal Society]] [[Computing Machine Laboratory]] at the [[Victoria University of Manchester|University of Manchester]], which produced the world's first working, [[Stored-program computer|stored-program electronic computer]] in 1948, the [[Manchester Baby]].<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|author=Jack Copeland|title=The Modern History of Computing|url=http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/computing-history/#MUC|encyclopedia=Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy|access-date=30 March 2012}}</ref><ref>[http://janus.lib.cam.ac.uk/db/node.xsp?id=EAD%2FGBR%2F0275%2FNewman%20M%20H%20A The Papers of Max Newman], St John's College Library</ref><ref>[http://www.cdpa.co.uk/Newman/ The Newman Digital Archive], St John's College Library & The University of Portsmouth</ref><ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Anderson | first1 = David | year = 2013 | title = Max Newman: Forgotten Man of Early British Computing | journal = Communications of the ACM | volume = 56 | issue = 5 | pages = 29–31 | doi = 10.1145/2447976.2447986 | s2cid = 1904488 }}</ref><ref name="microsoft">{{AcademicSearch|12802279}}</ref>

==Early life and education==

Newman was born Maxwell Herman Alexander Neumann in [[Chelsea, London]], [[England]], to a Jewish family, on 7 February 1897.<ref name="odnb"/> His father was Herman Alexander Neumann, originally from the German city of [[Bydgoszcz|Bromberg]] (now in [[Poland]]), who had emigrated with his family to London at the age of 15.<ref name="n176">William Newman, "Max Newman – Mathematician, Codebreaker and Computer Pioneer", pp. 176–188 in {{cite book |title=Colossus: The secrets of Bletchley Park's code-breaking computers |publisher=Oxford University Press, USA |year=2010 |isbn=978-0-19-957814-6 }}</ref> Herman worked as a secretary in a company, and married Sarah Ann Pike, an Irish schoolteacher, in 1896.<ref name="frs"/>

The family moved to [[Dulwich]] in 1903, and Newman attended Goodrich Road school, then [[City of London School]] from 1908.<ref name="frs"/><ref name="Heard2010">{{cite web |url=http://www.jcc.org.uk/About-the-JCC/From-the-Archives/Max-Newman-s-Medal.aspx |title=Max Newman's Medal |last=Heard |first=Terry |publisher=John Carpenter Club (City of London School Alumni) |year=2010 |access-date=6 November 2016 |quote=the [John Carpenter Club] archive has recently acquired the Beaufoy Medal for Mathematics awarded to Max Newman in 1915 |archive-date=8 November 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161108045937/http://www.jcc.org.uk/About-the-JCC/From-the-Archives/Max-Newman-s-Medal.aspx |url-status=dead }}</ref> At school, he excelled in classics and in mathematics. He played chess and the piano well.<ref name="colossus.newman">{{cite book |last=Newman |first=William |editor-first=B. Jack |editor-last=Copeland |title=Colossus The Secrets of Bletchley Park's Codebreaking Computers |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2010 |pages=176–188 |chapter=14. Max Newman - Mathematician, Codebreaker, and Computer Pioneer  |  isbn=978-0-19-957814-6 }}</ref>

Newman won a scholarship to study mathematics at [[St John's College, Cambridge]] in 1915, and in 1916 gained a First in Part I of the [[Cambridge Mathematical Tripos]].<ref name="odnb"/>

==World War I==

Newman's studies were interrupted by [[World War I]]. His father was [[internment|interned]] as an [[enemy alien]] after the start of the war in 1914, and upon his release he returned to Germany. In 1916, Herman changed his name by [[deed poll]] to the anglicised "Newman" and Sarah did likewise in 1920.<ref name="dpa">{{Cite journal | last1 = Anderson | first1 = D. | title = Max Newman: Topologist, Codebreaker, and Pioneer of Computing | doi = 10.1109/MAHC.2007.4338447 | journal = IEEE Annals of the History of Computing | volume = 29 | issue = 3 | pages = 76–81 | year = 2007 }}</ref> In January 1917, Newman took up a teaching post at [[Archbishop Holgate's School|Archbishop Holgate's Grammar School]] in [[York]], leaving in April 1918. He spent some months in the [[Royal Army Pay Corps]], and then taught at [[Chigwell School]] for six months in 1919 before returning to Cambridge.<ref name="n176"/> He was called up for [[military service]] in February 1918, but claimed [[conscientious objection]] due to his [[belief]]s and his father's country of origin, and thereby avoided any direct role in the fighting.<ref>Paul Gannon, {{cite book |title=Colossus: The secrets of Bletchley Park's code-breaking computers |publisher=Oxford University Press, USA |year=2010 |isbn=978-0-19-957814-6 }} pp. 225–226.</ref>

==Between the wars==

===Graduation===
Newman resumed his interrupted studies in October 1919, and graduated in 1921 as a [[Wrangler (University of Cambridge)|Wrangler]] (equivalent to a [[British undergraduate degree classification#First-class honours|First]]) in Part II of the Mathematical Tripos, and gained distinction in Schedule B (the equivalent of Part III).<ref name="odnb" /><ref name="n176" /> His dissertation considered the use of "symbolic machines" in physics, foreshadowing his later interest in computing machines.<ref name="colossus.newman" />

===Early academic career===
On 5 November 1923, Newman was elected a [[Research fellow|Fellow]] of St John's.<ref name="frs"/> He worked on the foundations of [[combinatorial topology]], and proposed that a notion of equivalence be defined using only three elementary "moves".<ref name="odnb"/> Newman's definition avoided difficulties that had arisen from previous definitions of the concept.<ref name="odnb"/> Publishing over twenty papers established his reputation as an "expert in modern topology".<ref name="colossus.newman" /> Newman wrote ''Elements of the topology of plane sets of points'',<ref name="topology"/> a work on [[general topology]] and undergraduate text.<ref>{{cite journal|author=Smith, P. A.|author-link=Paul Althaus Smith|title=Review of ''Elements of the Topology of Plane Sets of Points'' by M. H. A. Newman|journal=Bull. Am. Math. Soc.|volume=45|issue=11|year=1939|pages=822–824|doi=10.1090/S0002-9904-1939-07087-0|url=https://www.ams.org/journals/bull/1939-45-11/S0002-9904-1939-07087-0/S0002-9904-1939-07087-0.pdf|doi-access=free}}</ref> He also published papers on [[mathematical logic]], and solved a special case of [[Hilbert's fifth problem]].<ref name="frs"/>

He was appointed a lecturer in mathematics at Cambridge in 1927.<ref name="odnb"/> His 1935 lectures on the Foundations of Mathematics and [[Gödel's incompleteness theorems|Gödel's theorem]] inspired [[Alan Turing]] to embark on his work on the ''[[Entscheidungsproblem]]'' (decision problem) that had been posed by [[David Hilbert|Hilbert]] and [[Wilhelm Ackermann|Ackermann]] in 1928.<ref>David Hilbert and Wilhlem Ackermann. Grundzüge der Theoretischen Logik. Springer, Berlin, Germany, 1928. English translation: David Hilbert and Wilhelm Ackermann. Principles of Mathematical Logic. AMS Chelsea Publishing, Providence, Rhode Island, USA, 1950.</ref> Turing's solution involved proposing a hypothetical [[Computer program|programmable]] [[computer|computing machine]].<ref>{{Cite journal | first1 = A. M. | title = On Computable Numbers, with an Application to the Entscheidungsproblem | journal = Proceedings of the London Mathematical Society | last1 = Turing | volume = 42 | series = 2 | issue = 1 | pages = 230–265 | year = 1936 | publication-date = 1937 | doi = 10.1112/plms/s2-42.1.230 | s2cid = 73712 | url = https://turingarchive.kings.cam.ac.uk/publications-lectures-and-talks-amtb/amt-b-12 }}</ref> In spring 1936, Newman was presented by Turing with a draft of "On Computable Numbers with an Application to the Entscheidungsproblem". He realised the paper's importance and helped ensure swift publication.<ref name="colossus.newman" /> Newman subsequently arranged for Turing to visit [[Princeton University|Princeton]] where [[Alonzo Church]] was working on the same problem but using his [[Lambda calculus]].<ref name="n176"/> During this period, Newman started to share Turing's dream of building a [[Stored-program computer|stored-program computing machine]].<ref name="colossus.rise">{{cite book |last=Copeland |first=Jack |editor-first=B. Jack |editor-last=Copeland |title=Colossus The Secrets of Bletchley Park's Codebreaking Computers |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2010 |pages=91–100 |chapter=9. Colossus and the Rise of the Modern Computer |  isbn=978-0-19-957814-6 }}</ref>

During this time at Cambridge, he developed close friendships with [[Patrick Blackett]], [[J. H. C. Whitehead|Henry Whitehead]] and [[Lionel Penrose]].<ref name="colossus.newman" />

In September 1937, Newman and his family accepted an invitation to work for six months at Princeton. At Princeton, he worked on the [[Poincaré Conjecture]] and, in his final weeks there, presented a proof. However, in July 1938, after he returned to Cambridge, Newman discovered that his proof was fatally flawed.<ref name="colossus.newman" />

In 1939, Newman was elected a [[Fellow of the Royal Society]].<ref name="colossus.newman" />

===Family life===
In December 1934, he married [[Lyn Irvine|Lyn Lloyd Irvine]], a writer, with [[Patrick Blackett]] as best man.<ref name="frs"/> They had two sons, Edward (born 1935) and [[William Newman (computer scientist)|William]] (born 1939).<ref name="n176"/>

==World War II==
The United Kingdom declared war on Germany on 3 September 1939. Newman's father was Jewish, which was of particular concern in the face of [[Nazi Germany]], and Lyn, Edward and William were evacuated to America in July 1940, where they spent three years before returning to England in October 1943. After [[Oswald Veblen]] — maintaining 'that every able-bodied man ought to be carrying a gun or hand-grenade and fight for his country'— opposed moves to bring him to Princeton, Newman remained at Cambridge and at first continued research and lecturing.<ref name="n176"/>

===Government Code and Cypher School===
By spring 1942, Newman was considering involvement in war work. He made enquiries. After Patrick Blackett recommended him to the Director of Naval Intelligence, Newman was sounded out by [[Frank Adcock]] in connection with the [[Government Communications Headquarters|Government Code and Cypher School]] at [[Bletchley Park]].<ref name="n176"/>

Newman was cautious, concerned to ensure that the work would be sufficiently interesting and useful, and there was also the possibility that his father's German nationality would rule out any involvement in top-secret work.<ref>Gannon, 2006, pp. 227–228.</ref> The potential issues were resolved by the summer, and he agreed to arrive at [[Bletchley Park]] on 31 August 1942. Newman was invited by [[F. L. Lucas|F. L. (Peter) Lucas]] to work on [[Enigma machine|Enigma]] but decided to join [[John Tiltman|Tiltman]]'s group working on [[Tunny (cryptography)|Tunny]].<ref name="n176"/>

===Tunny===
{{Further|Lorenz cipher|Cryptanalysis of the Lorenz cipher}}
Newman was assigned to the Research Section and set to work on a German [[teleprinter]] [[cipher]] known as "[[Lorenz cipher|Tunny]]". He joined the "[[Testery]]" in October.<ref>Gannon, 2006, p. 228.</ref> Newman enjoyed the company<ref name="colossus.newman" /> but disliked the work and found that it was not suited to his talents.<ref name="odnb"/> He persuaded his superiors that [[Tutte]]'s method could be mechanised, and he was assigned to develop a suitable machine in December 1942. Shortly afterwards, [[Edward Travis]] (then operational head of Bletchley Park) asked Newman to lead research into mechanised codebreaking.<ref name="n176"/>

===The Newmanry===
{{Main|Newmanry}}
When the war ended, Newman was presented with a silver tankard inscribed 'To MHAN from the Newmanry, 1943–45'.<ref name="colossus.newman"/>

====Heath Robinson====
{{Main|Heath Robinson (codebreaking machine)}}
Construction started in January 1943, and the first prototype was delivered in June 1943.<ref>[[Jack Copeland]] with [[Catherine Caughey]], [[Dorothy Du Boisson]], [[Eleanor Ireland]], Ken Myers, and Norman Thurlow, "Mr Newman's Section", p. 157 of pp. 158–175 in {{cite book |title=Colossus: The secrets of Bletchley Park's code-breaking computers |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |year=2010 |isbn=978-0-19-957814-6 }}</ref> It was operated in Newman's new section, termed the "[[Newmanry]]", was housed initially in Hut 11 and initially staffed by himself, [[Donald Michie]], two engineers, and 16 [[Women's Royal Naval Service|Wrens]].<ref name="copeland64">Jack Copeland, "Machine against Machine", pp. 64–77 in B. Jack Copeland, ed., in {{cite book |title=Colossus: The secrets of Bletchley Park's code-breaking computers |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2010 |isbn=978-0-19-957814-6 }}</ref> The Wrens nicknamed the machine the "[[Heath Robinson (codebreaking machine)|Heath Robinson]]", after the [[W. Heath Robinson|cartoonist]] of the same name who drew humorous drawings of absurd mechanical devices.<ref name="copeland64"/>

====Colossus====
{{Main|Colossus computer}}
The Robinson machines were limited in speed and reliability. [[Tommy Flowers]] of the [[Post Office Research Station]], [[Dollis Hill]] had experience of [[Vacuum tube|thermionic valves]] and built an electronic machine, the [[Colossus computer]] which was installed in the Newmanry. This was a great success and ten were in use by the end of the war.

==Later academic career==

===Fielden Chair, Victoria University of Manchester===
In September 1945, Newman was appointed head of the [[School of Mathematics, University of Manchester|Mathematics Department]] and to the [[Fielden Chair of Pure Mathematics]] at the [[Victoria University of Manchester|University of Manchester]].<ref name="colossus.rise"/><ref name=EssTuring>{{cite book |title=The essential Turing: seminal writings in computing, logic, philosophy ...|page=209|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=x7mMr4twnloC&pg=PA209 |access-date=27 January 2010 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-825080-7 |author1=Turing, Alan Mathison |author2=Copeland, B. Jack |author-link2=Jack Copeland |year=2004}}</ref>

====Computing Machine Laboratory====

{{Main|Manchester Baby}}

{{Rquote|right|
I am ... hoping to embark on a computing machine section here, having got very interested in electronic devices of this kind during the last two or three years ... I am of course in close touch with Turing.
| Newman, letter to von Neumann, 1946<ref name="colossus.rise"/>}}

Newman lost no time in establishing the renowned [[Royal Society]] [[Computing Machine Laboratory]] at the university.<ref name="EssTuring"/> In February 1946, he wrote to [[John von Neumann]], expressing his desire to build a computing machine.<ref name="colossus.rise"/> The [[Royal Society]] approved Newman's grant application in July 1946.<ref name="colossus.rise"/> [[Frederic Calland Williams]] and [[Thomas Kilburn]], experts in electronic circuit design, were recruited from the [[Telecommunications Research Establishment]].<ref name="colossus.rise"/><ref name="EssTuring"/> Kilburn and Williams built [[Manchester Baby|Baby]], the world's first [[Stored-program computer|electronic stored-program digital computer]] based on [[Alan Turing]]'s and [[John von Neumann]]'s ideas.<ref name="colossus.rise"/><ref name="EssTuring"/>

{{Blockquote| Now let's be clear before we go any further that neither Tom Kilburn nor I knew the first thing about computers when we arrived at Manchester University... Newman explained the whole business of how a computer works to us.
 | [[Frederic Calland Williams]], co-creator of [[Manchester Baby]]<ref name="colossus.rise"/>}}

After the [[Automatic Computing Engine]] suffered delays and set backs, Turing accepted Newman's offer and joined the Computer Machine Laboratory in May 1948 as Deputy Director (there being no Director). Turing joined Kilburn and Williams to work on Baby's successor, the [[Manchester Mark I]]. Collaboration between the University and [[Ferranti]] later produced the [[Ferranti Mark I]], the first mass-produced computer to go on sale.<ref name="colossus.rise"/>

===Retirement===
Newman retired in 1964 to live in [[Comberton]], near [[Cambridge]]. After Lyn's death in 1973, he married Margaret Penrose, widow of his friend [[Lionel Penrose]], father of Sir [[Roger Penrose]].<ref name="colossus.newman" /><ref>{{cite magazine|last=Prasannan|first=R|date=7 October 2020|title=Tackling Sir Roger Penrose|url=https://www.theweek.in/news/sci-tech/2020/10/07/from-our-archives-before-the-big-bang.html|magazine=The Week|access-date=31 January 2021}}</ref>

He continued to do research on [[combinatorial topology]] during a period when England was a major centre of activity notably Cambridge under the leadership of [[Erik Christopher Zeeman|Christopher Zeeman]]. Newman made important contributions leading to an invitation to present his work at the 1962 [[International Congress of Mathematicians]] in Stockholm at the age of 65, and proved a [[Generalized Poincaré conjecture]] for topological [[manifolds]] in 1966.

At the age of 85, Newman began to suffer from [[Alzheimer's disease]]. He died in [[Cambridge]] in 1984, two years later.<ref name="colossus.newman"/>

==Honours==
* [[Royal Society#Fellows|Fellow of the Royal Society]], elected 1939
* Royal Society [[Sylvester Medal]], awarded 1958
* [[London Mathematical Society]], President 1949–1951
* LMS [[De Morgan Medal]], awarded 1962
* D.Sc. [[University of Hull]], awarded 1968

The Newman Building at Manchester was named in his honour. The building housed the pure mathematicians from the [[Victoria University of Manchester]] between moving out of the Mathematics Tower in 2004 and July 2007 when the School of Mathematics moved into its new [[Alan Turing Building]], where a lecture room is named in his honour. He was elected to membership of the [[Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society]] on 1.1.1945.

In 1946, Newman declined the offer of an [[Order of the British Empire|OBE]] as he considered the offer derisory.<ref name="copeland64"/> [[Alan Turing]] had been appointed an OBE six months earlier and Newman felt that it was inadequate recognition of Turing's contribution to winning the war, referring to it as the "ludicrous treatment of Turing".<ref name="n176"/>

==See also==
* [[List of pioneers in computer science]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
;Archival materials
* [http://www.cdpa.co.uk/Newman/MHAN/ The Max Newman Digital Archive] has digital copies of materials from the library of St. John's College, Cambridge.

{{s-start}}
{{s-aca}}
{{s-bef|before=[[Louis Mordell]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[Fielden Chair of Pure Mathematics]]|years = 1945–1964}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Frank Adams]]}}
{{s-end}}

{{De Morgan Medallists}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Newman, Max}}
[[Category:1897 births]]
[[Category:1984 deaths]]
[[Category:20th-century cryptographers]]
[[Category:Fellows of the Royal Society]]
[[Category:Fellows of St John's College, Cambridge]]
[[Category:20th-century English mathematicians]]
[[Category:Bletchley Park people]]
[[Category:People educated at the City of London School]]
[[Category:Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge]]
[[Category:People from Chelsea, London]]
[[Category:Academics of the University of Manchester]]
[[Category:English conscientious objectors]]
[[Category:English Jews]]
[[Category:English people of German-Jewish descent]]
[[Category:Foreign Office personnel of World War II]]
[[Category:People from Comberton]]
[[Category:British Army personnel of World War I]]
[[Category:Royal Army Pay Corps soldiers]]
[[Category:Military personnel from the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea]]