Logic List Mailing Archive

John Mayberry (1940-2016)

John Mayberry 1940-2016

John, who sadly passed away on 19th August, finally succumbing to the 
effects of a stroke in 2012, spent his whole post-PhD career in the 
University of Bristol. He arrived in 1966 having taken a PhD under G. 
Takeuti at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His work was 
always in the Foundations of Mathematics and particularly set theory. He 
said that he felt that he had done his best work in his 60's and indeed 
most of his thinking culminated in his book "The Foundations of 
Mathematics in the theory of sets" (Cambridge Encyclopaedia of Mathematics 
series, CUP 2000).  He was interested in the concept of number and the 
axiomatic system he devised was a theory of strictly finite sets, but with 
limitations on the complexity of inductions possible.  This book was well 
received and sparked the most interest of his work in that community, 
particularly on the philosophical side. John's work was developed 
considerably earlier than this final publication date, and although 
independently thought out, there were resonances between its axiomatic 
system and the influential work of Sam Buss in the mid-80's and 90's on 
weak sub-systems of the standard Peano system of axioms.

John was appointed Reader in 2000 and retired in 2005, having mentored up 
to 14 post-graduate students. He is survived by his children, Kate and 
Ben, and three grandchildren. There will be a funeral at Cotham Parish 
Church, (Cotham Road, Cotham, Bristol, BS6 6DR) next Wednesday 31st August 
at 2.30pm

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