David Crighton
David George Crighton (born November 15, 1942 in Llandudno , Wales , † April 12, 2000 in Cambridge ) was a British mathematician specializing in applied mathematics .
Crighton was born in Wales. Since his parents were bombed out, attended school in Watford and studied from 1961 at St. John's College, Cambridge. After graduating with a bachelor's degree, he taught mathematics at Woolwich Polytechnic . However, he soon switched to research assistant (in aircraft acoustics) at John Fflowcs Williams at Imperial College , where he received his doctorate in 1969. His theoretical investigations into the production of aircraft noise caught the attention of James Lighthill , who made him professor of applied mathematics in Leeds in 1974 . He built their applied mathematics department into one of the leading in Great Britain. In 1986 he succeeded George Keith Batchelor as Professor of Applied Mathematics at Cambridge. At the same time he became a fellow of St John's College . From 1991 to 2000 he was the chairman of the Faculty for Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics (DAMTP). From 1997 to 2000 he was a Masters at Jesus College . He died of liver cancer.
Crighton dealt with the generation and avoidance of aircraft noise ( aeroacoustics ), vibrations of mechanical structures, linear and non-linear wave phenomena such as solitons and inverse scattering theory. He was also active in math education in schools, including a Pop Maths roadshow .
Crighton had been a Fellow of the Royal Society since 1993 . In 1995 he received the Carl Friedrich Gauß Medal . In 1998 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences . In 2002 the David Crighton Medal was donated in his honor by the London Mathematical Society and the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications (the British Society for Applied Mathematics).
He was married twice and had two children from his first marriage. He played the piano and was a passionate opera lover.
Web links
- John J. O'Connor, Edmund F. Robertson : David Crighton. In: MacTutor History of Mathematics archive .
- Obituary by Pedley in the Guardian 2000
References
- ↑ He had previously been a researcher in the engineering department at Cambridge, but did not take up the position
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Crighton, David |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Crighton, David George (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | British mathematician |
| DATE OF BIRTH | November 15, 1942 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Llandudno , Wales |
| DATE OF DEATH | April 12, 2000 |
| Place of death | Cambridge |