John Charles Fields

John Charles Fields (14 May 1863 to 9 August 1932) was a Canadian mathematician and the founder of the Fields Medal. Born in Hamilton, Canada West, he graduated from University College, University of Toronto, in 1884 and took his Ph.D. at Johns Hopkins University in 1887. After teaching at Johns Hopkins and at Allegheny College he left for Europe in 1891, working mainly in Berlin, Göttingen and Paris among mathematicians such as Weierstrass, Klein and Frobenius, and began the work on algebraic functions that proved the most fruitful of his career. Back in Toronto from 1902 he campaigned for the standing of mathematics, helped establish the National Research Council of Canada and the Ontario Research Foundation, served as president of the Royal Canadian Institute from 1919 to 1925, and helped bring the 1924 International Congress of Mathematicians to Toronto. He planned the Fields Medal from the late 1920s and left funds for it in his will; J. L. Synge completed the plan and the medal was first awarded in 1936. He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 1907 and of the Royal Society of London in 1913, and the Fields Institute is named for him.