Herbert Westren Turnbull

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Herbert Westren Turnbull (born August 31, 1885 in Tettenhall , Wolverhampton ( England ), † May 4, 1961 in Gransmere , Westmorland , England) was an English mathematician .

Herbert Turnbull was born the son of school inspector William Peverill Turnbull. Apparently the father was interested in mathematics and passed on a certain enthusiasm to his son, who quoted him in 1945 in his book The Mathematical Discoveries of Newton .

Herbert attended Sheffield Grammar School and then went to Trinity College in Cambridge , which he graduated with great success as the second best in his class. In 1909 he won the prestigious Smith Prize . After completing his studies, he taught at St. Catharine's College , Cambridge and the following year at Liverpool University .

In 1911 Turnbull married Ella Drummond Williamson. After the year in Liverpool, Turnbull taught at Hong Kong University (St. Stephen's College). At the same time he became the overseer of the university home run by the Anglican Church . This also included duties in church service. He stayed at the University of Hong Kong until 1915, then returned to England, where he taught for three years in the north at the Repton School in Derbyshire . After that, like his father, he became the supervisor of the local school system.

Between 1919 and 1926 Turnbull worked as a research fellow at St John's College , Oxford . As a student at Cambridge, Turnbull was fascinated by the theory of invariants . He published two papers on the problems of classical algebra (1910/1911) and another after his return to England (1916). However, his mathematical research up to this point was very limited by the many other obligations that he had been given and accepted.

He had only published five papers when he was offered the Regius Professorship of Mathematics by St Andrews University . He stayed here until 1950. He was considered a patient teacher. His work continued to deal with algebra, here he continued the investigations of Alfred Clebsch and Paul Gordan . However, interests in mathematics had shifted significantly since the 1920s , so that his work no longer received the attention it deserved.

Turnbull was also very interested in the history of mathematics . In presenting the history of his subject, he saw an opportunity to bring the basic concepts and trains of thought of mathematicians closer to a wider public. As editor of an anthology for the 300th birthday of James Gregory (1939) he drew attention to his achievements. After his retirement , the Royal Society asked him to publish the Correspondence of Isaac Newton , and he was able to complete two volumes before his death (Vol. 1, 1959).

In 1932 Herbert Turnbull was elected a member of the Royal Society . A little later he also became a member of the Royal Society of Edinburgh . In addition to his professional interests, Turnbull was also an enthusiastic and good piano player , who played in a small chamber orchestra as often as he could. He was also an avid alpinist and as a member of the Alpine Club he went on numerous high-altitude hikes.

Works

  • The Theory of Determinants, Matrices, and Invariants . 1928
  • The Great Mathematicians . 1929
  • Theory of Equations . 1939
  • The Mathematical Discoveries of Newton . 1945
  • together with Alexander Aitken : Introduction to the Theory of Canonical Matrices . 1945

Individual evidence

  1. ^ JJ O'Connor and EF Robertson (2003) Herbert Westren Turnbull ; on the University of St Andrews website; accessed on November 27, 2015.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Turnbull, Herbert Westren
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English mathematician
DATE OF BIRTH August 31, 1885
PLACE OF BIRTH Tettenhall , Wolverhampton ( England )
DATE OF DEATH May 4th 1961
Place of death Gransmere , Westmorland , England