Edward Waring

1734-1798

English physician and mathematician who contributed significantly to the fields of number theory and algebraic curves.

Waring's theorem, stated in 1777, held that every integer is equal to the sum of no more than nine cubes and not more than 19 fourth powers. Although he gave no mathematical proof of this, it has since been shown to be true many times. David Hilbert's proof of this theorem in 1909 led to profound insights in number theory.