Walter Feit

Walter Feit
Walter Feit at the ICM in Nice in 1970
Born	(1930-10-26)October 26, 1930 Vienna, Austria
Died	July 29, 2004(2004-07-29) (aged 73) Branford, Connecticut
Nationality	Austrian American
Alma mater	University of Chicago University of Michigan
Known for	Feit–Thompson theorem
Scientific career
Fields	Mathematics
Doctoral advisor	Robert McDowell Thrall

Walter Feit (October 26, 1930 – July 29, 2004) was an American mathematician who worked in finite group theory and representation theory.

He was born to a Jewish family in Vienna and escaped for England in 1939 via the Kindertransport. He moved to the United States in 1946 where he became an undergraduate at the University of Chicago. He did his Ph.D. at the University of Michigan, and became a professor at Cornell University in 1952, and at Yale University in 1964.

His most famous result is his joint, with John G. Thompson, proof of the Feit–Thompson theorem that all finite groups of odd order are solvable. At the time it was written, it was probably the most complicated and difficult mathematical proof ever completed. He wrote almost a hundred other papers, mostly on finite group theory, character theory (in particular introducing the concept of a coherent set of characters), and modular representation theory. Another regular theme in his research was the study of linear groups of small degree, that is, finite groups of matrices in low dimensions. It was often the case that, while the conclusions concerned groups of complex matrices, the techniques employed were from modular representation theory.

He also wrote the books: The representation theory of finite groups and Characters of finite groups, which are now standard references on character theory, including treatments of modular representations and modular characters.

Feit was an invited speaker at the International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM) in Nice in 1970. He was awarded the Cole Prize by the American Mathematical Society in 1965, and was elected to the United States National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He also served as Vice-President of the International Mathematical Union.

He died in Branford, Connecticut.

Selected publications

• Feit, Walter (1982). The representation theory of finite groups. North Holland. ISBN 0-444-86155-6.
• Feit, Walter (1967). Characters of finite groups. New York: Benjamin.

External links

• O'Connor, John J.; Robertson, Edmund F., "Walter Feit", MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive, University of St Andrews
• Walter Feit at the Mathematics Genealogy Project
• Yale obituary
• Walter Feit (1930–2004), Notices of the American Mathematical Society; vol. 52, no. 7 (August 2005).
• Walter Feit at Find a Grave