Background
Carmichael, Robert Daniel was born on March 1, 1879 in Goodwater, Alabama, United States. Son of Daniel Monroe and Amanda (Lessley) Carmichael.
Carmichael, Robert Daniel was born on March 1, 1879 in Goodwater, Alabama, United States. Son of Daniel Monroe and Amanda (Lessley) Carmichael.
He attended Lineville College, briefly, and he earned his bachelor"s degree in 1898, while he was studying towards his Doctor of Philosophy degree at Princeton University. Carmichael completed the requirements for his Doctor of Philosophy in mathematics in 1911. Carmichael"s Doctor of Philosophy research in mathematics was done under the guidance of the noted American mathematician G. David Birkhoff, and it is considered to be the first significant American contribution to the knowledge of differential equations in mathematics.
Carmichael next taught at Indiana University from 1911 to 1915. Then he moved on to the University of Illinois, where he remained from 1915 until his retirement in 1947. Carmichael is known for his research in what are now called the Carmichael numbers (a subset of Fermat pseudoprimes, numbers satisfying properties of primes described by Fermat"s Little Theorem although they are not primes), Carmichael"s totient function conjecture, Carmichael"s theorem, and the Carmichael function, all significant in number theory and in the study of the prime numbers.
He found the smallest Carmichael number, 561, and over 50 years later, it was proven that there are infinitely many of them.
Carmichael may have been the first to describe the Steiner system South(5,8,24), a structure often attributed to Ernst Witt. While at Indiana University Carmichael was involved with special theory of relativity.
The Logic of Discovery, Chicago/London: Open Court Publishing.
Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (vice president, Section A, 1934). Member American Mathematics Society (councillor 1916-1918, vice president 1922, chairman Chicago section 1920-1921), Mathematics Association American (Councillor 1916-1918, 20, 24, 25-27. Member division physical science, National.
Clubs: Chaos, University, Philosophical.
Married Eula Narramore, November 24, 1901. Children: Eunice Annie (Mistress Keith H. Roberts), Erdys Lucile (Mistress Ernest C. Hartmann), Gersham Narramore, Robert Lessley.