This is a list of Welsh mathematicians, who have contributed to the development of mathematics.
Name | Image | Born | Died | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
Brian Bowditch | 1961 [1] Neath | n/a | Known for his contributions to geometry and topology, particularly in the areas of geometric group theory and low-dimensional topology. He is also known for solving the angel problem. Bowditch holds a chaired Professor appointment in Mathematics at the University of Warwick. | |
George H. Bryan | 1 Mar 1864 [2] Cambridge | 13 Oct 1928 [2] Bordighera | Credited with developing the modern mathematical treatment of the motion of airplanes in flight. In 1888, Bryan developed mathematical models for fluid pressures within a pipe and for external buckling pressures. These models are still used today. Aside from minor differences in notation, Bryan's 1911 equations are the same as those used today to evaluate modern aircraft. Born at Cambridge, he was Professor of Mathematics at Bangor University 1896 till 1928. [3] | |
Griffith Davies | 5 Dec 1788 [4] Llandwrog [4] | 25 Mar 1855 [5] [6] | Noted actuary and author, born in Llandwrog, Caernarfon. Fellow of the Royal Society. [7] | |
Lancelot Hogben | 9 Dec 1895 [8] [9] [2] Portsmouth | 22 Aug 1975 [8] [9] [2] Wrexham | Medical statistician, founder of the Society for Experimental Biology, and author of Mathematics for the Million (1936). Learnt Welsh and lived and died in Glyn Ceiriog, Wrexham, Wales. [3] | |
William Jones | 1675 [10] [11] [6] Llanfihangel Tre'r Beirdd [4] | 1 Jul 1749 [11] [12] London [13] | Born in Anglesey in 1675, was the first recorded mathematician to use the symbol π in its present sense in 1706, though it would not achieve widespread adoption until used by famed Swiss mathematician Euler. | |
Thomas Jones | 23 Jun 1756 [2] Berriew | 18 Jul 1807 [2] Edgware Road | Senior Wrangler and Senior Tutor of Trinity College, Cambridge. [14] | |
John T. Lewis | 15 Apr 1932 [15] Swansea [15] | 21 Jan 2004 [15] Dublin [15] | Contributed to quantum measurement, Bose–Einstein condensation and large deviations theory. | |
William Morgan | 26 May 1750 [16] [2] [17] Bridgend [18] [19] [17] | 4 May 1833 [17] | Considered the father of modern actuarial science. | |
Richard Price | 23 Feb 1723 [2] [20] [21] Glamorgan | 19 Apr 1791 [2] [21] [20] London | Wrote a paper on the proper method of calculating the values of contingent reversions which were said to have exercised a beneficial influence in drawing attention to the inadequate calculations on which many insurance and benefit societies had recently been formed. In 1769 Price received the degree of D.D. from the university of Glasgow for this work. He also wrote on finance, economics, probability, and life insurance. Price edited Bayes's major work An Essay towards solving a Problem in the Doctrine of Chances (1763), which contains the Bayes' Theorem with an introduction to the paper which provides some of the philosophical basis of Bayesian statistics. In 1765 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in recognition of his work on the legacy of Bayes. | |
Robert Recorde | 1512, 1510 [22] [23] [24] Tenby [4] | 1558 [25] [22] | Sixteenth-century inventor of the equals sign was from Tenby. As it has been suggested, "[h]is equals sign was an invention that, while slow in becoming universally adopted, is still perhaps the most fundamental thing ever invented by a Welsh person." [26] . | |
Bertrand Russell | 18 May 1872 [27] [28] [29] Trellech [30] | 2 Feb 1970 [27] [31] [28] Plas Penrhyn [30] , Penrhyndeudraeth [30] | Influential British thinker of the twentieth century, though more properly a philosopher than a mathematician, was of English descent but born in Monmouthshire. | |
Mary Wynne Warner | 22 Jun 1932 [32] Carmarthen [4] | 1 Apr 1998 [32] Spain [4] | 'Pioneer' in fuzzy mathematics, born in Carmarthen. |
William Jones, FRS was a Welsh mathematician, most noted for his use of the symbol π to represent the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter. He was a close friend of Sir Isaac Newton and Sir Edmund Halley. In November 1711, he became a Fellow of the Royal Society, and was later its vice-president.
Kurt August Hirsch was a German mathematician who moved to England to escape the Nazi persecution of Jews. His research was in group theory. He also worked to reform mathematics education and became a county chess champion. The Hirsch length and Hirsch–Plotkin radical are named after him.
The MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive is a website maintained by John J. O'Connor and Edmund F. Robertson and hosted by the University of St Andrews in Scotland. It contains detailed biographies on many historical and contemporary mathematicians, as well as information on famous curves and various topics in the history of mathematics.
Abu Mahmud Hamid ibn al-Khidr al-Khujandi was a Muslim Transoxanian astronomer and mathematician born in Khujand who lived in the late 10th century and helped build an observatory, near the city of Ray, in Iran.
The Sylvester Medal is a bronze medal awarded by the Royal Society (London) for the encouragement of mathematical research, and accompanied by a £1,000 prize. It was named in honour of James Joseph Sylvester, the Savilian Professor of Geometry at the University of Oxford in the 1880s, and first awarded in 1901, having been suggested by a group of Sylvester's friends after his death in 1897. Initially awarded every three years with a prize of around £900, the Royal Society have announced that starting in 2009 it will be awarded every two years instead, and is to be aimed at 'early to mid career stage scientist' rather than an established mathematician. The award winner is chosen by the Society's A-side awards committee, which handles physical rather than biological science awards.
The Sir Edmund Whittaker Memorial Prize is awarded every four years by the Edinburgh Mathematical Society to an outstanding young mathematician having a specified connection with Scotland. It is named after Sir Edmund Whittaker.
Ernst Sigismund Fischer was a mathematician born in Vienna, Austria. He worked alongside both Mertens and Minkowski at the Universities of Vienna and Zurich, respectively. He later became professor at the University of Erlangen, where he worked with Emmy Noether.
Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn Muʿādh al-Jayyānī was an Arab mathematician, Islamic scholar, and Qadi from Al-Andalus. Al-Jayyānī wrote important commentaries on Euclid's Elements and he wrote the first known treatise on spherical trigonometry.
Hermann Cäsar Hannibal Schubert was a German mathematician.
The following is a timeline of key developments of algebra:
Julius Weingarten was a German mathematician. He received his doctorate in 1864 from Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg. He made some important contributions to the differential geometry of surfaces, such as the Weingarten equations.
Edmund Frederick Robertson is a professor emeritus of pure mathematics at the University of St Andrews.
James "Jim" Wiegold was a Welsh mathematician.
Charles Fox was the English mathematician who introduced the Fox–Wright function and the Fox H-function. In 1976, he received an honorary doctorate from Concordia University.
Alfredo Capelli was an Italian mathematician who discovered Capelli's identity.
Hans Wilhelm Eduard Schwerdtfeger was a German-Canadian-Australian mathematician who worked in Galois theory, matrix theory, theory of groups and their geometries, and complex analysis.
David Tweedie was a Scottish mathematician, who taught in Scotland and Egypt.