Derrick Henry Lehmer (February 23 1905–May 22 1991) was an American mathematician who refined Edouard Lucas' work in 1930s and obtained the Lucas-Lehmer test for Mersenne primes.
Early Life
Lehmer was born in Berkeley, California, his father was Derrick Norman Lehmer , a professor of Mathematics at the University of California, Berkeley and his mother was Clara Eunice Mitchell .
He studied Physics and earned a Bachelor degree from University of California at Berkeley. He continued with graduate studies at University of Chicago.
Marriage
During his studies at Berkeley, Derrick Henry Lehmer met Emma Markovna Trotskaia , a Russian student born in 1906, who was studying Engineering. Then she changed her major and earned a Bachelor degree in Mathematics from Berkeley in 1928. In the same year Derrick married Emma and they moved to Providence, Rhode Island, after Brown University offered him an instructorship .
Career
Derrick Henry Lehmer received a Master's degree and a Ph.D. (1930), both from Brown University.
He was a National Research Fellow at California Institute of Technology and Stanford University from 1930 to 1932.
He worked at Lehigh University from 1934 until 1940. For one year (1938-1939) the couple went to Cambridge, England on a Guggenheim Fellowship. The Lehmers had two children and they returned to USA by sea just before the beginning of the Battle of the Atlantic.
In 1940 Derrick Henry Lehmer accepted a position in the Mathematics Department of University of California at Berkeley. He continued working there until 1972, the year he became professor emeritus.
In 1945-1946 Derrick Henry Lehmer worked on ENIAC, the first electronic computer in the United States.
Death
Derrick Henry Lehmer died in Berkeley on 22nd May, 1991.
See also
External links