18 Facts About Alexander Oppenheim

Sir Alexander Oppenheim, OBE, PMN, FRSE was a British mathematician and university administrator.

Alexander Oppenheim's teachers considered him too young to attend university and delayed his entrance to scholarship competitions until 1921, when he received a scholarship to Balliol College, Oxford.

In each of his three undergraduate years at the University of Oxford, Alexander Oppenheim was the Oxford University mathematical scholar.

Alexander Oppenheim graduated with first-class honours in 1924 and was the senior mathematical scholar in 1926.

Alexander Oppenheim was awarded a Commonwealth Fellowship to study at Princeton University and the University of Chicago.

Alexander Oppenheim received a second doctorate, a DSc, from the University of Oxford in 1954 for his academic work later in his career.

Alexander Oppenheim left Edinburgh in 1931 for a professorship at the Raffles College in Singapore.

Alexander Oppenheim was captured by the Japanese in 1942 and was held as a prisoner of war at Changi Camp.

At Changi Camp, Alexander Oppenheim helped establish a rudimentary "POW University" with 29 other captured academics and was elected Dean by his fellow prisoners.

Alexander Oppenheim's health deteriorated while at Changi Camp and was frequently seriously ill.

Alexander Oppenheim played a key role in the 1949 merger of Raffles College with King Edward VII College of Medicine to form the University of Malaya.

Alexander Oppenheim was appointed acting Vice-Chancellor in 1955 and then Vice-Chancellor in 1957, and remained in that position until his retirement in 1965.

Alexander Oppenheim then served as the head of the mathematics department at the University of Benin in Nigeria until 1977, when he retired.

Alexander Oppenheim lived in Henley-on-Thames until his death there on 13 December 1997 at the age of 94.

In 1955, Alexander Oppenheim was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire, and was made a knight bachelor in 1961.

Alexander Oppenheim was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1956.

Alexander Oppenheim was awarded the Distinguished Alumni Medal from the University of Chicago in 1977.

Alexander Oppenheim received honorary doctorates from The University of Hong Kong, The University of Leeds, and The National University of Singapore.