Charles Coulson

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Charles Alfred Coulson (born December 13, 1910 in Dudley , † January 7, 1974 in Oxford ) was an English chemist and applied mathematician .

Coulson was the son of an inspector of technical schools, went to school in Bristol and studied mathematics and science from 1923 on a scholarship at the University of Cambridge ( Trinity College ). He finished the Tripos exams with top marks in both mathematics and science. He then conducted research on molecular orbital theory under RH Fowler and John Lennard-Jones . In 1936 he received his doctorate . In 1938 he married and became a lecturer at the University of St Andrews ( Queen's College ). During the Second World War he was exempt from military service for religious reasons (he was a Methodist). In 1945 he became a lecturer in mathematics at Oxford and also at the laboratory for physical chemistry.

In 1947 he became Professor of Theoretical Physics at King's College London and in 1952 Rouse Ball Professor of Mathematics and Fellow of Wadham College , Oxford. In 1972 he moved to a chair for theoretical chemistry at Oxford.

He died of cancer.

Coulson was awarded the Davy Medal in 1970, the Faraday Medal in 1968 and the Tilden Medal of the Chemical Society in 1969. He was multiple honorary doctorates. In 1941 he became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and in 1950 the Royal Society . In 1963 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences .

He was a staunch Methodist and also published on religious topics and appeared on television. 1962 to 1968 he was on the Central Committee of the World Council of Churches. From 1965 to 1971 he was in charge of the charitable organization Oxfam .

Works

  • Electricity. Edinburgh: Oliver and Boyd; New York: Interscience Publishers, 1948.
  • Valence. London [u. a.]: Oxford Univ. Press, 1952.
  • Waves: a mathematical account of common types of wave motion. 7th ed., Repr. Edinburgh [u. a.]: Oliver & Boyd [u. a.], 1958.
  • Dictionary of pi-electron calculations. Oxford [u. a.]: Pergamon Press, 1965.
  • The shape and structure of molecules. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1973.
  • Coulson, Charles A .; O'Leary, Brian; Mallion, Robert B .: Hückel theory for organic chemists. London: Acad. Pr., 1978.

literature

  • Ana Simoes & Kostas Gavroglu: Quantum chemistry qua applied mathematics: The contributions of Charles Alfred Coulson (1910–1974) . Historical studies in the physical and biological sciences, xxix (1999), 363-406.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Biographical data, publications and academic family tree of Charles Alfred Coulson at academictree.org, accessed on January 28, 2018.
personal data
SURNAME Coulson, Charles
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Coulson, Charles Alfred (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English chemist and mathematician
DATE OF BIRTH December 13, 1910
PLACE OF BIRTH Dudley
DATE OF DEATH 7th January 1974
Place of death Oxford