Joseph Wedderburn

Joseph Henry Maclagan Wedderburn (2 February 1882 to 9 October 1948) was a Scottish mathematician who taught at Princeton University for most of his career. A significant algebraist, he proved that a finite division algebra is a field, a result known as Wedderburn's little theorem, and proved part of the Artin-Wedderburn theorem on simple algebras. He also worked on group theory and matrix algebra. He was the tenth of fourteen children of the physician Alexander Wedderburn and Anne Ogilvie, was educated at Forfar Academy and George Watson's College in Edinburgh, and entered the University of Edinburgh in 1898. His younger brother was the lawyer Ernest Wedderburn.