Sir Alexander Oppenheim, OBE, PMN, FRSE (4 February 1903 – 13 December 1997) was a British mathematician and university administrator.
Dickson with a thesis titled Minima of Indefinite Quadratic Quaternary Forms, published in the 1920 Proceedings of National Academies of Sciences.
[1][2][3] Oppenheim received a second doctorate, a DSc, from the University of Oxford in 1954 for his academic work later in his career.
[1][2] At Changi Camp, Oppenheim helped establish a rudimentary "POW University" with 29 other captured academics and was elected Dean by his fellow prisoners.
[1][2] They had persuaded camp commandant[4] Lieutenant Okazaki to allow them to collect books from Raffles College, hold courses in a dozen classrooms, and organize discussion groups.
[1][2] Oppenheim's health deteriorated while at Changi Camp and was frequently seriously ill.[1][2] His involvement at the informal university was interrupted when he was transferred to work on the Siam–Burma Railway.
[1][2] In 1955, Oppenheim was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire, and was made a knight bachelor in 1961.
In 1962, he was appointed Honorary Commander of the Order of the Defender of the Realm, conferring upon him the title of "Tan Sri" by the Sultan of Malaysia.