John Hammersley

John Hammersley
Born	(1920-03-21)March 21, 1920 Helensburgh
Died	May 2, 2004(2004-05-02) (aged 84)
Nationality	British
Alma mater	Sedbergh School Emmanuel College, Cambridge
Scientific career
Institutions	University of Oxford
Doctoral students	Geoffrey Grimmett John Spouge Dominic Welsh

John Michael Hammersley (21 March 1920-2 May 2004) was a British mathematician best-known for his foundational work in the theory of self-avoiding walks and percolation theory. He was born in Helensburgh in Dunbartonshire, and educated at Sedbergh School. He started reading mathematics at Emmanuel College, Cambridge but was called up to join the Royal Artillery in 1941. During his time in the army he worked on ballistics.

He graduated in mathematics in 1948. He held a number of positions, both in and outside academia. His book Monte Carlo Methods with David Handscomb was published in 1964.

He was an advocate of problem solving, and an opponent of abstraction in mathematics, taking part in the New math debate.

He was a Reader at Oxford University from 1969, and elected Fellow of the Royal Society in 1976.

See also

• Hammersley set
• Hammersley-Clifford theorem
• Low-discrepancy sequence

Further reading

• Geoffrey Grimmett, Dominic Welsh. "John Michael Hammersley (1920-2004)". arXiv:math.PR/0610862.

• David R. Wood. "The Academic Family Tree of John M. Hammersley" (PDF).