One of the worlds most notable mathematicians, unfortunately, died from Coronavirus on the 11th of April 2020. John H. Conway was a giant in the field who introduced a whole generation to a new way to create and simulate using cellular automaton in 1970. Incredibly influential and inspired many after him such as Stephen Wolfram to develop his ideas further. John did not stop there and contributed more to the field than we can do justice here – as he worked on so many fields including Geometry and Game theory.
He may though be fondly remembered for Conway’s Game of Life, which was truly an inspiration to me in my early years. There is immense beauty to the fact that complexity can emerge from very simple repeated rules. There is somewhat of an aesthetic parallel with Quantum Physics, where simple rules give rise to often unexpected results.
