E. M. Wright

Who was E. M. Wright?

Sir Edward Maitland Wright was an English mathematician, best known for co-authoring Hardy & Wright with G. H. Hardy.

After obtaining a self-taught first-class mathematics degree as an external student at the University of London, Wright studied at Jesus College, Oxford and Christ Church, Oxford. His research career lasted from 1931 until the early 1980s, and he was a professor at the University of Aberdeen in 1936-1962, and Principal 1962-1976. A building there is named after him in recognition of his service to the university. Wright worked in many different areas, including number theory and graph theory, and published over a hundred papers. Most of his work focused on analytic number theory.

He was knighted in 1977, and awarded the Senior Berwick Prize and the Gold Medal of the Order of Polonia Restituta in 1978. Mathematician J. D. M. Wright is the son of E. M. Wright.