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Simon Norton is a mathematician that worked on finite simple groups and co-authored the Atlas of Finite Groups. With John Conway they proved there is a connection with the Monster group and the j-function:monstrous moonshine

There's now a book out titled The Genius in my Basement by Alexander Masters, where he says that Simon Norton stopped doing mathematics after 1985 when John Conway left for America. I find this hard to believe because the book also talks about his immense talent and natural attraction to the subject as a youngster:

  • while still at school, gained a first-class external degree from London university
  • Won gold at the IMO between '67 and '69 and special prizes twice.

Did he continue to produce mathematical papers after 1985?

I suspect the answer is yes, and would love to know what he did after 1985.

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    Doesn't seem to be true to me. [His publication list](http://www.ams.org/mathscinet/search/author.html?mrauthid=132270) on MathSciNet (needs university subscription) looks essentially continuous from 1979 up to now and the publications are in very reputable journals. The vast majority of those papers was published in the period 1986-2000.2011-09-11
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    Isn't this, like, subjective?2011-09-11
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    @Srivatsan: I edited it to remove the subjective words. I think this formulation is now a factual question on mathematics history.2011-09-11
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    @user10389: despite the large amount of press this publication has received in the recent weeks, I think one should still not assume that the average reader would know who Simon Norton (or possibly John Conway) is. It would be a nicer question if you can provide some background material on why we should care about these individuals and their portrayal by investigative journalists, possibly with some appropriately placed links.2011-09-11
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    @Willie "Average reader" can use google, no? (Besides, if someone doesn't know who S.N. is, he can't answer the question anyway.)2011-09-11
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    @willie ok I've added some more back ground information on the the talent of Simon Norton.2011-09-11
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    I have voted to close as "non-constructive". It is terrible manners to discuss in a public forum the quality of work of an active member if the community, especially whether his current papers are "not to the same level as in his 20s."2011-09-11
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    I agree with Andres. Closed.2011-09-11
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    @andres all you had to say was you didn't like the reference to work done in his 20s and I would have removed it. There was no need to close it2011-09-11
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    @user10389: the question as it stands can be answered by a simple search, and the answer is "yes": http://www.ams.org/mathscinet/search/publications.html?pg4=AUCN&s4=norton%2C+simon Keep in mind that closure is not indefinite closure: an inappropriate question which is edited to become appropriate can be reopened.2011-09-11
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    @Qiaochu well I've re-edited the question, so it would be helpful if you could list some of his publications upto the present to get a feel for what he did. Some of us don't have access to a subscription to the link you gave.2011-09-12
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    I haven't read the book, but I've seen an article which states that Simon Norton hasn't had an academic position since 1985. This is very different from "stopped doing mathematics in 1985". There are people with no academic position who do first-rate mathematics.2011-09-12
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    @Gerry "There are people with no academic position who do first-rate mathematics." I suppose that could be a question too. :-)2011-09-12
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    @Srivatsan: Search e.g. for "amateur" on MO. You'll find stuff like [this](http://mathoverflow.net/questions/44244/) and [this](http://mathoverflow.net/questions/3591/).2011-09-12
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    I have downvoted the question because I find it quite impolite to *publicly* discuss the quality of work of people who are most likely(?) not on this site as well.2011-09-12
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    @Srivatsan the question doesn't discuss the quality of his work, but asks if he continued to publish mathematical papers after 1985.2011-09-12
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    FWIW Norton has a paper, _The monster is fabulous_ appearing in a soon-to-be-released volume "Finite Simple Groups: Thirty Years of the Atlas and Beyond" (http://bookstore.ams.org/conm-694)2017-07-26

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For those without access, here's bibliographical information on Math Reviews for Simon Norton since 2000.

MR2500569 (2010f:11062) Norton, Simon P. Moonshine-type functions and the CRM correspondence. Groups and symmetries, 327–342, CRM Proc. Lecture Notes, 47, Amer. Math. Soc., Providence, RI, 2009. (Reviewer: Jannis A. Antoniadis), 11F22 (11F03 11F06 20D08)

MR2130835 (2005k:03108) Norton, S. P. Generalizing surreal numbers. Analyzable functions and applications, 347–354, Contemp. Math., 373, Amer. Math. Soc., Providence, RI, 2005, 03E10 (03E20)

MR1994968 (2004e:20025) Norton, Simon P. Counting nets in the Monster. Groups, combinatorics & geometry (Durham, 2001), 227–232, World Sci. Publ., River Edge, NJ, 2003. (Reviewer: Christopher S. Simons), 20D08 (20D60 20F36)

MR1888424 (2003b:20023) Norton, Simon P.; Wilson, Robert A. Anatomy of the Monster. II. Proc. London Math. Soc. (3) 84 (2002), no. 3, 581–598. (Reviewer: Mohammad-Reza Darafsheh), 20D08 (20E28)

MR1877765 (2002k:20025) Norton, Simon From Moonshine to the Monster. Proceedings on Moonshine and related topics (Montréal, QC, 1999), 163–171, CRM Proc. Lecture Notes, 30, Amer. Math. Soc., Providence, RI, 2001. (Reviewer: Christopher S. Simons), 20D08 (11F22)

MR1877755 (2002k:20024) Glauberman, George; Norton, Simon P. On McKay's connection between the affine E8 diagram and the Monster. Proceedings on Moonshine and related topics (Montréal, QC, 1999), 37–42, CRM Proc. Lecture Notes, 30, Amer. Math. Soc., Providence, RI, 2001. (Reviewer: Christopher S. Simons), 20D08 (20F55)

MR1806215 (2001k:20029) Norton, Simon Computing in the Monster. Computational algebra and number theory (Milwaukee, WI, 1996). J. Symbolic Comput. 31 (2001), no. 1-2, 193–201. (Reviewer: Christopher S. Simons), 20D08 (20B25 20C34 20F55)

MR1662447 (2000b:11077) Conway, J. H.; Sloane, N. J. A. Sphere packings, lattices and groups. Third edition. With additional contributions by E. Bannai, R. E. Borcherds, J. Leech, S. P. Norton, A. M. Odlyzko, R. A. Parker, L. Queen and B. B. Venkov. Grundlehren der Mathematischen Wissenschaften [Fundamental Principles of Mathematical Sciences], 290. Springer-Verlag, New York, 1999. lxxiv+703 pp. ISBN: 0-387-98585-9 (Reviewer: Renaud Coulangeon), 11H31 (05B40 11H06 20D08 52C07 52C17 94B75 94C30)

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He was teaching postgraduate students in the year 1987-88; I did Part III in Cambridge that year, where he lectured Reflection Groups. The most interesting subject of all I took that year, and I regret not doing that subject in the final exam.