Dickson, Leonard Eugene

Leonard Eugene Dickson, (born Jan. 22, 1874, Independence, Iowa, U.S.—died Jan. 17, 1954, Harlingen, Texas), American mathematician who made important contributions to the theory of numbers and the theory of groups.

Appointed associate professor of mathematics at the University of Texas at Austin in 1899, Dickson joined the staff of the University of Chicago in 1900, where he remained until 1939. A prolific mathematician, Dickson published the first extensive work on the theory of finite fields and expanded the Wedderburn and Cartan theories of linear associative algebras. One of his most-engrossing studies concerned the relationships between the theory of invariants and number theory. Using the analytic results of the Russian mathematician Ivan M. Vinogradov, he proved the ideal Waring theorem in his investigations of additive number theory. Of his 18 published books, the most monumental is History of the Theory of Numbers, 3 vol. (1919–23).