In Memoriam
Researchers in this directory who are no longer with us
The Top 100 and the regional pages list living researchers only, so the directory stays accurate for anyone using it to make contact. This page remembers the 13 researchers from the ranked pool who have passed away, plus a separate listing of foundational figures whose careers predate the digital publication record our pipeline reads from. Each name links to a full profile.
From the ranked pool
| Name | Institution | Country | Years |
|---|---|---|---|
| G. H. Hardy | University of Cambridge | GB | 1877-1947 |
| Harold Davenport | University of Cambridge | GB | 1907-1969 |
| J. E. Littlewood | University of Cambridge | GB | 1885-1977 |
| Daniel Shanks | University of Maryland | US | 1917-1996 |
| Pál Erdős | Hungarian Academy of Sciences | HU | 1913-1996 |
| Chengdong Pan | Shandong University | CN | 1934-1997 |
| Eckford Cohen | NA | NA | 1920-2005 |
| Saburô Uchiyama | NA | NA | 1929-2007 |
| Heini Halberstam | University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign | US | 1926-2014 |
| Albert A. Mullin | U.S. Army | US | 1933-2017 |
| Vladimir Shevelev | Ben-Gurion University of the Negev | IL | 1945-2018 |
| Jean Bourgain | Institute for Advanced Study | US | 1954-2018 |
| Christian Mauduit | Aix-Marseille University | FR | 1954-2019 |
Foundational figures
The pipeline behind this site ranks researchers whose work appears on arXiv or in OpenAlex, which mostly means careers active from the mid-1990s onward. The names below predate that coverage. Their work is the bedrock on which modern Goldbach research is built; every modern paper in this directory ultimately rests on the circle method (Hardy-Littlewood, Vinogradov, van der Corput), the sieve toolkit (Halberstam-Richert, Linnik), and the breakthroughs of Chen Jingrun, Wang Yuan, and Hua Loo-Keng. They are listed in birth order. Click any name for a full profile.
| Name | Institution | Country | Years | Contribution |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| J. G. van der Corput | University of Amsterdam | NL | 1890-1975 | Van der Corput's method for exponential sums; foundational for the circle method |
| Ivan Matveyevich Vinogradov | Steklov Institute of Mathematics | RU | 1891-1983 | Proved the ternary Goldbach conjecture for sufficiently large odd integers (1937) |
| Arnold Walfisz | Tbilisi State University | GE | 1892-1962 | Siegel-Walfisz theorem on primes in arithmetic progressions |
| Theodor Estermann | University College London | GB | 1902-1991 | Goldbach-Estermann theorem; early progress on the ternary problem |
| Hua Loo-Keng | Chinese Academy of Sciences | CN | 1910-1985 | Hua's lemma; founded the Chinese school of analytic number theory |
| Yu. V. Linnik | Steklov Institute (Leningrad) | RU | 1915-1972 | Linnik's theorem, the dispersion method, and the Linnik constant |
| Hans-Egon Richert | University of Ulm | DE | 1924-1993 | Sieve Methods (with Halberstam); the standard reference |
| Karl Prachar | University of Vienna | AT | 1925-1994 | Primzahlverteilung (1957), the standard reference on prime distribution for two generations |
| Askold Ivanovich Vinogradov | Steklov Institute (Leningrad) | RU | 1929-1986 | Bombieri-Vinogradov theorem on average prime distribution |
| Wang Yuan | Chinese Academy of Sciences | CN | 1930-2021 | Wang (1+4) result; key contributor to the Chinese school of additive prime number theory |
| Chen Jingrun | Chinese Academy of Sciences | CN | 1933-1996 | Chen's theorem (1+2): every sufficiently large even integer is the sum of a prime and a number with at most two prime factors. The closest result to Goldbach |
| Anatoly A. Karatsuba | Steklov Institute of Mathematics | RU | 1937-2008 | Analytic number theory, exponential sums, and the Karatsuba multiplication algorithm; advisor to a major Russian school |
| Ming-Chit Liu | University of Hong Kong | HK | 1937-2023 | Set a record on the ternary Goldbach problem with an effective bound (with Tianze Wang |
A researcher missing here, or listed here in error? Email admin@wwigr.org and it will be corrected.