John Charles Fields

John Charles Fields was a Canadian mathematician, born in Hamilton in 1863, who founded the Fields Medal for outstanding achievement in mathematics. He graduated from the University of Toronto in 1884 and took his doctorate at Johns Hopkins University in 1887, then taught at Allegheny College before leaving for Europe in 1891, where he worked in Berlin, Göttingen and Paris among leading mathematicians and began a lifelong friendship with Gösta Mittag-Leffler. His most fruitful research was on algebraic functions. He returned to Canada in 1902 to teach at the University of Toronto and worked to raise the standing of mathematics there. He left money in his will for the medal fund that bears his name.