Obituary: Paul Fong

Paul Fong, professor emeritus in the UIC Department of Mathematics, Statistics and Computer Science, died July 17, 2025, in San Francisco, California.

He received his PhD from Harvard University in 1959 under the direction of Richard Brauer. He started his career at Cambridge University and the University of California, Berkeley, before joining the University of Illinois Chicago in 1965.

Fong's mathematical research was in the theory of finite groups and their representations, to which he made fundamental discoveries and advanced the field. Teaching courses at both the undergraduate and graduate levels, he guided seven graduate students to PhDs, and several of them went on to direct others in graduate-level research. He collaborated with mathematicians in Denmark, England and France, and he had several co-authors in Chicago, including the late Jon Alperin (University of Chicago) and the late Bhama Srinivasan (UIC). Fong retired in 2003.

Fong loved music and the arts and attended events in Chicago such as Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the Lyric Opera performances. He was an accomplished pianist and played the guitar, and he collected fine oriental rugs.