ABSTRACT
First, let me thank you very much for inviting me to participate in your conference and for giving me this opportunity to say a few informal words to you following an excellent dinner.
My area of research intersects yours precisely in our recognition of the importance of a good number system and a good notation, and our use of the same number system. Indeed, as I look back on my own career, my closest contact with turbulence — and this was, as in the case of this conference, a matter of international turbulence — was during World War II, when I was conscripted to work, from January 1942 until the end of the war in Europe in May 1945 at Bletchley Park, breaking the highest-grade German ciphers used for diplomatic and military traffic passing among the German government, the German High Command, and their naval, air force, and army commanders and U-boat captains. Those were indeed turbulent days, and I will say something about them in my remarks this evening. More generally, I will reflect on the wonderful mathematicians I have known during a career spanning more than 60 years, starting in British Military Intelligence, proceeding along a more conventional academic route, and continuing today, though at a gentler pace consistent with my growing maturity.
