Ian Sneddon

Ian Naismith Sneddon , often quoted IN Sneddon, (born December 8, 1919 in Renfrew (Scotland) , † November 4, 2000 in Glasgow ) was a Scottish mathematician and physicist who dealt with analysis and applied mathematics, especially elasticity theory.

Live and act

Sneddon grew up in simple circumstances in Glasgow. His mathematical talent was already noticed at school and he studied mathematics and physics at the University of Glasgow at the age of 16, graduating in both subjects in 1940. He then studied as a Bryce Fellow at Cambridge University ( Trinity College ), where he in 1942 took the Tripos exams and then worked on military research at Cavendish Laboratory and Fort Halstead, in part with Nevill Francis Mott . It was there that he became interested in problems related to elasticity theory. After the war, he continued working with Mott at the University of Bristol in nuclear physics. Her book on quantum mechanics Wave mechanics and its applications was published in 1948. Even before that, he was lecturer in theoretical physics at the University of Glasgow in 1946, where he simultaneously received a doctorate (D.Sc.) and the Kelvin Medal. In 1951 he became professor for applied mathematics at the University of North Staffordshire (later Keele University ) and from 1956 professor in Glasgow (Simson Chair of Mathematics). In 1985 he retired. From 1960 to 1970 he was visiting professor each year at North Carolina State University .

His math textbooks are characterized by an emphasis on applications. He also edited the English edition of the well-known course in higher mathematics by Vladimir Smirnow and the analysis textbooks by Fichtenholz .

In 1958 he became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and in 1983 the Royal Society . He received several honorary doctorates, received the Order of Polonia Restituta and was a member of the Polish Academy of Sciences. In 1969 he received the OBE . In 1959 he was President of the Edinburgh Mathematical Society .

He had been married to a school friend since 1943 and had a daughter and two sons.

Fonts

• with Nevill Mott: Wave Mechanics and its applications, Clarendon Press, Oxford 1948, Dover 1963
• Fourier Transforms, McGraw Hill 1951, Dover 1995
• Fourier Series, London, Routledge and Paul 1961
• Use of Integral Transforms, McGraw Hill 1972
• Special functions in mathematical physics and chemistry, Oliver and Boyd 1956, Longman 1980
• Special functions of mathematical physics and chemistry II, collection of formulas, BI university pocket books 1963
• Elements of partial differential equations, McGraw Hill 1957, Dover 2006
• with J. Defares: An introduction to the mathematics of medicine and biology, North Holland, Amsterdam, 1960, Chicago 1973
• Mixed boundary value problems in potential theory, Wiley 1966
• with EL Ince: Solutions of ordinary differential equations, 2nd edition, Wiley 1987
• with M. Lowengrub: Crack problems in the classical theory of elasticity, Wiley 1969
• Editor: Encyclopaedic dictionary of mathematics for engineers and applied scientists, Pergamon Press 1976
• with Denis Stanley Berry: Classical theory of elasticity, in: Siegfried Flügge (editor): Elasticity and Plasticity, Handbuch der Physik, Springer 1958
• Functional Analysis, in: S. Flügge (editor): Handbook of Physics, Mathematical Methods, Vol. 2, 1955 (with a detailed section on integral transformations)

Web links

• John J. O'Connor, Edmund F. Robertson :  Ian Sneddon. In: MacTutor History of Mathematics archive .
• Biography at North Carolina State University