Ian Stewart (mathematician)

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Ian Stewart
Ian stewart mathematician.jpg
Born Ian Nicholas Stewart
(1945-09-24) 24 September 1945 (age 78)[1]
England
Fields Mathematics
Institutions University of Warwick
Alma mater <templatestyles src="Plainlist/styles.css"/>
Thesis Subideals of Lie algebras (1969)
Doctoral advisor Brian Hartley[2]
Known for <templatestyles src="Plainlist/styles.css"/>
Notable awards <templatestyles src="Plainlist/styles.css"/>
Website
www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/sci/maths/people/staff/ian_stewart

Ian Nicholas Stewart FRS (born 24 September 1945) is an Emeritus Professor of Mathematics at the University of Warwick, UK, and a widely known popular-science and science-fiction writer.[3]

Biography

Stewart was born in 1945 in England. While in the sixth form at school he came to the attention of the mathematics teacher. The teacher had Stewart sit mock A-level examinations without any preparation along with the upper-sixth students; Stewart was placed first in the examination. The teacher arranged for Stewart to be admitted to Cambridge on a scholarship to Churchill College, where he obtained a BA in mathematics. Stewart then went to the University of Warwick for his doctorate, on completion of which in 1969 he was offered an academic position at the university, where he presently teaches mathematics. He is well known for his popular expositions of mathematics and his contributions to catastrophe theory.[4]

While at Warwick Stewart edited the mathematical magazine Manifold. He also wrote a column called "Mathematical Recreations" for Scientific American magazine from 1991 to 2001. He wrote a total of 96 columns for Scientific American, some of which were reprinted in the book "How to Cut a Cake: And Other Mathematical Conundrums".

Stewart has held visiting academic positions in Germany (1974), New Zealand (1976), and the US (University of Connecticut 1977–78, University of Houston 1983–84).

Research and publications

Stewart has published more than 140 scientific papers, including a series of influential papers co-authored with Jim Collins on coupled oscillators and the symmetry of animal gaits.[3][5][6][7][8][9][10]

Stewart has collaborated with Dr Jack Cohen and Terry Pratchett on four popular science books based on Pratchett's Discworld. In 1999 Terry Pratchett made both Jack Cohen and Professor Ian Stewart "Honorary Wizards of the Unseen University" at the same ceremony at which the University of Warwick gave Terry Pratchett an honorary degree.

In March 2014 Ian Stewart's iPad app, Incredible Numbers by Professor Ian Stewart, launched in the App Store. The app was produced in partnership with Profile Books and Touch Press.[11]

Mathematics and popular science

Science of Discworld series

Textbooks

Science fiction

Science and mathematics

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Awards and honours

In 1995 Stewart received the Michael Faraday Medal and in 1997 he gave the Royal Institution Christmas Lecture on The Magical Maze. He was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2001.

Stewart was the first recipient of the Christopher Zeeman Medal, awarded jointly by the LMS and the IMA for his work on promoting mathematics.[13]

Family life

Stewart married his wife, Avril, in 1970.[1] They met at a party at a house Avril was renting while she trained as a nurse. They have two sons.[1] He lists his recreations as science fiction, painting, guitar, keeping fish, geology, Egyptology and snorkelling.[1]

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.(subscription required)
  2. Ian Stewart at the Mathematics Genealogy Project
  3. 3.0 3.1 Ian Stewart's publications indexed by the Scopus bibliographic database, a service provided by Elsevier.
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  12. http://www.ams.org/notices/200211/rev-holmes.pdf
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External links