Donald Dines Wall | |
|---|---|
| Born | (1921-08-13)August 13, 1921 |
| Died | November 28, 2000(2000-11-28) (aged 79) Georgia |
| Nationality | American |
| Alma mater | University of California, Berkeley |
| Known for | Wall–Sun–Sun primes |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Mathematics |
| Doctoral advisor | Derrick Henry Lehmer |
Donald Dines Wall (August 13, 1921 – November 28, 2000) was an Americanmathematician working primarily onnumber theory. He obtained hisPh.D. onnormal numbers fromUniversity of California, Berkeley in 1949, where his adviser wasDerrick Henry Lehmer. His better known papers include the first modern analysis ofFibonacci sequencemodulo a positive integer.
Drawing on Wall's work,Zhi-Hong Sun and his twin brotherZhi-Wei Sun proved a theorem about what are now known as theWall–Sun–Sun primes that guided the search for counterexamples toFermat's Last Theorem.
Wall was born inKansas City, Missouri, on August 13, 1921 to Donald F. Wall and Mary Wooldridge. The family lived inLouisiana andTexas as he was growing up. In 1933, they moved toWhittier, California, then in 1936 toSanta Barbara, California, where he graduated from high school in 1938. He enrolled atUCLA and joined theDelta Sigma Phi fraternity.
In April 1940 he had a successful operation to remove a brain tumor at UC Hospital in San Francisco. The surgeon wasHoward C. Naffziger, who later served on the board of Regents of the University of California. He and Naffziger kept in touch for many years afterwards.
He graduated from UCLA with aB.A. in Mathematics in the spring of 1944. After graduation he took a full-time job withDouglas Aircraft but continued in graduate school at UCLA.
In 1946 he received anM.A. in mathematical statistics from UCLA. In the same year he passed the first three of eight actuarial exams.
In 1947, he moved toHartford, Connecticut, to work for theAetna Life Insurance Company. He also taught an evening math class atTrinity College.
In the fall of 1947, he returned to graduate school atHarvard University, where he became interested in number theory. He also took a class atMassachusetts Institute of Technology.
In June 1948 he returned to California to complete hisPh.D. atUC Berkeley, where he also taught classes as ateaching assistant.
In 1949 he was awarded his Ph.D. innormal numbers from UC Berkeley.
In fall of 1949 he and his family moved toSanta Barbara where he took a job as instructor in mathematics atSanta Barbara College of the University of California. He taught generalastronomy as well asnumber theory and other math courses. After two years, he was promoted toassistant professor.
In 1950, he taught a course incomputer mathematics atNaval Air Station Point Mugu, where computers were being developed for calculating missile trajectories.
From his work at Pt Mugu, he was recruited byIBM to work as an Applied Science Representative starting July 1951 inLos Angeles. In 1956, he became IBM's Education Coordinator for the west coast. He traveled to interested universities in the western US to give them details of a program developed by theUCLA Anderson School of Management about the use of computers in business.
In 1958, he moved toWhite Plains, New York, and continued working at IBM until his retirement in 1982.
