On Holy Innocents' Day in December 2000, Peter M. Neumann had his 60th birthday. To mark this occasion there was a meeting of former research students, and other friends, collaborators, and well-wishers in Oxford on the 5th, 6th and 7th of January 2001. What follows is a short description of the event together with some photographs.
About 60 people attended PMN60. Here you can find a list of those that had planned to attend, but unfortunately some could not in the end come. E-mail addresses are included where possible.
The program started with a reception at the Mathematical Institute. Jill Drake, the administrator, and Colin Bunch, the caretaker, supplied hugh quantities of bubbly. In a cheerful mood people then filed downstairs to enjoy the first lecture by Peter Cameron. Later in the afternoon Simon Blackburn, Sue McKay and Röggi Möller gave talks.
In the evening Peter and Sylvia had invited everyone to a party at Queen's. (Photographs from the party at Queens and from the Mathematical Institute.) Peter played his fiddle and Sylvia demonstrated her expertise in country dancing leading a group of some very brave people. Bill and Julia Tompson had burrowed into the archives of The Queen's College and had discovered a couple of songs that had been completely unknown to everyone. Anthony McIsaac sang them in glorious resounding voice with everyone joining in the refrains. (The texts of the songs)
The program on Saturday morning started with Cheryl Praeger giving a talk with the title Anonymous Peter. There she talked about two sets of results where Peter's contributions are substantial without his name appearing as the author of any of the papers containing these results. Many of us have similar stories to tell where Peter has generously shared his ideas and results without wanting to be named as a co-author of the final product. Michael Vaughan-Lee, Jan Saxl and Geetha Venkataraman gave the other talks in the morning session.
After lunch Peter himself gave a talk. He looked back at two problem areas, varieties of groups and enumeration of groups, that have been dear to him from the start of his career. Peter was followed by Martin Liebeck, Gareth Jones and David Evans.
On Saturday evening everyone was invited to a birthday dinner at Lady Margaret Hall. Gabrielle Stoy had layed on a magnificent dinner. There appeared a big birthday cake complete with 60 candles. With Sylvia's help Peter just managed to blow them out in time before concerned guests brought in the fire extinguishers. When the cake had been dealt with it was time to look at what had happend to Peter in his sixty years. Julia Tompson had done more than just burrow into the Queen's archieves, she had also prepared a "This is your life" program for Peter. "This is your life" was a long running television program in the UK. The subject is presented with the story of his life and friends and family come forth to tell embarassing stories. Many of Peters friends and his family had assisted and contributed photographs and anecdotes. But far from being embarassed Peter joined in adding colour and details to the stories, and contributing the most embarassing stories himself. After being presented with his life, Peter was presented with birthday presents brought with money collected from his former students and other well-wishers. The final present was his academic family album compiled by Meenaxi Bhattacharjee. The family album contains photgraphs and greetings from most of his academic descendants.
Rögnvaldur G. Möller ( roggi@raunvis.hi.is) maintains this web-page. Last updated February 12, 2001.
