Hardy, Godfrey Harold (1877-1947), was an English mathematician. He is known for his many contributions to mathematical analysis and number theory. Hardy, along with his Cambridge University colleagues Bertrand Russell and John Edensor Littlewood, helped revitalize mathematics in the United Kingdom. Hardy’s textbook, A Course in Pure Mathematics (1908), is among the most important mathematical works of the early 1900’s.
Godfrey Harold “G.H.” Hardy was born on Feb. 7, 1877, in Cranleigh, England. Hardy began mathematics study at Cambridge University in 1896. After receiving his master’s degree in 1903, Hardy spent the next years lecturing in Trinity College at Cambridge. In 1906, he took a position at Oxford University. In 1931, he returned to Cambridge. He retired in 1942.
In 1908, Hardy published a paper on genetic variation in natural populations, which refuted common misconceptions surrounding Mendelian genetics–the basic laws of heredity as formulated by Gregor Mendel. The mathematician Wilhelm Weinberg also published a paper on this topic that same year. Hardy and Weinberg determined that the relative frequency of different genes in a population remains constant as long as breeding is random and the environment stable from one generation to the next. Today, the Hardy-Weinberg Theorem is an important component in the synthetic theory of evolution and forms the foundation of population genetics. See Evolution (The synthetic theory).
Hardy was the most important mentor and supporter of the Indian mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan. In 1913, Hardy received a letter from Ramanujan, who was then an unknown clerk in Madras (now Chennai), India. The 10-page letter was filled with complex mathematical theorems. Hardy invited Ramanujan to Cambridge in 1914 and worked with him until Ramanujan’s death in 1920. Hardy did important work to help Ramanujan develop mathematical proofs for his many brilliant insights. Hardy died on Dec. 1, 1947.
