Charles L. Bouton

Charles Leonard Bouton
Born	(1869-04-25)April 25, 1869 St. Louis
Died	February 20, 1922(1922-02-20) (aged 52) Cambridge
Resting place	Mount Auburn Cemetery
Nationality	United States
Occupation(s)	mathematician, university teacher
Spouse	Mary G. Spencer ​ (m. 1907)​

Charles Leonard Bouton (April 25, 1869 – February 20, 1922) was an American mathematician.

Early life and education

Charles L. Bouton was born in St. Louis, Missouri, where his father was an engineer.[1] He studied in the public schools of St. Louis. He later received a Master of Science degree from Washington University in St. Louis.[1] In 1898 he received his doctorate from Leipzig University. His Ph.D. advisor was Sophus Lie.[2]

He married Mary G. Spencer in Baltimore on June 15, 1907.[3]

Teaching

He taught at the Smith Academy, Washington University and Harvard University.[1] From 1900 to 1902 Bouton was an editor of the Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society.[1]

He died at his home in Cambridge, Massachusetts on February 20, 1922.[4]

Publications

In 1902 Bouton published a solution of the game Nim.[5] This result is today viewed as the birth of combinatorial game theory.

References

1. Osgood, William F.; Coolidge, Julian L.; Chase, George H. (1922), "Charles Leonard Bouton (In Memoriam)" (PDF), Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society, 28 (3): 123–124, doi:10.1090/s0002-9904-1922-03508-2
2. Charles Leonard Bouton at the Mathematics Genealogy Project
3. "Weddings: Bouton-Spencer". The Baltimore Sun. June 16, 1907. p. 6. Retrieved August 4, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
4. "Death of Professor Bouton". Harvard Alumni Bulletin. Vol. XXIV, no. 22. March 2, 1922. p. 526. Retrieved May 3, 2023 – via Google Books.
5. Bouton, C. L. (1901–1902), "Nim, a game with a complete mathematical theory", Annals of Mathematics, 2, 3 (1/4): 35–39, doi:10.2307/1967631, JSTOR 1967631

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