Richard Ewen Borcherds

Richard Ewen Borcherds (born 29 November 1959) is a British mathematician known for work in lattices, group theory and infinite-dimensional algebras, and for proving the monstrous moonshine conjectures using ideas from string theory. He introduced vertex algebras and the objects now called Borcherds algebras. He was awarded the Fields Medal in 1998.

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• Awarded the Fields Medal in 1998 for proving the monstrous moonshine conjectures using ideas from string theory, and for introducing vertex algebras.Aug 19, 1998
• Represented the United Kingdom at the IMO twice: 1977 silver medal (29 pts, rank 22), 1978 gold medal with a special prize (39 pts, rank 2) - a near-perfect 1978 score at age 18 that flagged him as a future Fields Medalist.1978
• Completed a PhD at Cambridge (1985) under John Horton Conway on 'The Leech lattice and other lattices' after nearly dropping out, doubting he was good enough.1985
• Born in Cape Town but the family moved to Birmingham when he was six months old; educated at King Edward's School, Birmingham, where he was a Midlands under-21 chess champion by 14.1959
• Brother Michael Borcherds is lead developer of the mathematics teaching package GeoGebra; two of his three brothers became mathematics teachers.