E. M. Wright
Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates Template:Use British English Script error: No such module "Unsubst". Script error: No such module "infobox".Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".Script error: No such module "Check for conflicting parameters". Script error: No such module "For". Sir Edward Maitland Wright Template:Postnominals (13 February 1906 – 2 February 2005) was an English mathematician, best known for co-authoring An Introduction to the Theory of Numbers Script error: No such module "Footnotes".[1] with G. H. Hardy. He served as the Principal of the University of Aberdeen from 1962 to 1976.
Career
He was born in Farnley, near Leeds, Yorkshire, where his father was a soap manufacturer. He moved to the south of England with his mother when his parents separated.
After obtaining a first-class mathematics degree as a self-taught external student at the University of London, Wright studied at Jesus College, Oxford and Christ Church, Oxford. His research career lasted from 1931 until the early 1980s, firstly on a Research Fellowship at Christ Church, which included a year in Göttingen, Germany. He was then appointed a lecturer at Christ Church, teaching there until 1935 followed by his appointment as Professor of Mathematics at the University of Aberdeen. He held that chair from 1936 to 1962, except for a break during the war (from 1943 to 1945) when he was seconded to the Air Ministry Intelligence at MI6 headquarters. He became Vice-Principal of the University in 1961 and Principal and Vice-Chancellor from 1962 until he stood down in 1976. He nevertheless continued to work as a Research Fellow at the University until 1983. A building there is named after him in recognition of his service to the university.[2]
Wright worked in many different subspecialties, including number theory and graph theory, and published over a hundred papers. Most of his work focused on analytic number theory.
Honours and awards
He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1937 and awarded their Makdougall Brisbane Prize in 1952.
He was elected to the London Mathematical Society in 1929 and awarded their Senior Berwick Prize in 1978.
He was knighted in 1977 and awarded the Gold Medal of the Order of Polonia Restituta of Poland in 1978.
Private life
He died in Reading shortly before his 99th birthday. He had married Phyllis Harris of North Wales, with whom he had a son, the mathematician John D. M. Wright.[3]
See also
Publications
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References
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External links
- Obituary, Bull. London Math. Soc.
- ObituaryScript error: No such module "Unsubst".Template:Cbignore, Times Online.
- Obituary, The Daily Telegraph.
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- Template:PAGENAMEBASE at the Mathematics Genealogy ProjectTemplate:EditAtWikidata
Template:Principals of the University of Aberdeen Template:Authority control
- Pages with script errors
- 1906 births
- 2005 deaths
- Burials in Oxfordshire
- People from Farnley, Leeds
- Alumni of Jesus College, Oxford
- Alumni of Christ Church, Oxford
- Academics of the University of Aberdeen
- Principals of the University of Aberdeen
- 20th-century English mathematicians
- British number theorists
- Knights Bachelor
- British textbook writers