Robert J. Lemke Oliver

Robert J. Lemke Oliver is an American mathematician specializing in number theory, particularly analytic number theory and algebraic number theory. He is an assistant professor in the Department of Mathematics at Tufts University.

One of his most notable contributions is his work on the distribution of prime numbers, especially concerning patterns in the last digits of consecutive primes. In collaboration with Kannan Soundararajan, he published a paper in 2016 that revealed unexpected biases in how the last digits of consecutive prime numbers are distributed. Contrary to the long-held assumption that the last digits of primes are random, their research showed that certain last-digit patterns occur more frequently than others. For example, a prime ending with the digit 3 is less likely to be followed by another prime ending with 3.

This discovery has implications for our understanding of the randomness of prime numbers and has spurred further research into the properties of primes. The findings were widely reported in the media and published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

Robert J. Lemke Oliver continues to conduct research in number theory and contributes to the mathematical community through his teaching and publications.