The Atlas of Irish Mathematics: Londonderry (Jun 2020)
Our 19th bi-monthly regional Irish focused blog highlights mathematical and maths trained people associated with county Londonderry, following on Donegal, Wexford, Armagh, Limerick, Westmeath, Mayo, Belfast, Wicklow, Kerry, Galway, Monaghan, Tipperary, Sligo, Carlow, Down, Cork, Cavan, and Laois.
Londonderry is a sizable and populous county which boasts two centres of third level learning: Magee College (founded in 1865, sometimes known in the past as McCrea-Magee) in its capital Derry and the University of Ulster in Coleraine (founded in 1968) about 50km to the east. Magee is now part of the greater UU, and like all NI campuses it has come a long way from its local roots. The Coleraine campus has also attracted many students and academics from around Ireland and abroad. Why Coleraine, and not Derry, was chosen as the location of Northern Ireland's second university is a whole other story, see here for one "with hindsight" take.
Magee was recognised by the RUI in 1881, students graduating via the latter. After failing to be included in the new Irish university structure in 1907 (namely, QUB and NUI), Magee had a relationship with TCD allowing its students to get degrees at Trinity as University of Dublin graduates. Finally, starting in 1938, Magee was able to award its own degrees (see here for more details). From 1953 on it was Magee University College.
There is also the further education North West Regional College (formerly the North West Institute of Further and Higher Education), which awards some higher education certificates and diplomas.
Below we highlight over 80 mathematical people who were born and/or reared in the county, or who taught there. We include a few strays from Donegal who grew up just across the border from Derry, many of whom undoubtedly went to school in that city.
Some of these people didn't pursue maths careers, despite their advanced training. Alas, we cannot at this time document all maths graduates of Magee or Coleraine, not even the doctorates. Likewise we don't included people who merely attended secondary school in the county.
We do, however, include some notable maths teachers who plied their trade at Rainey, St Columb's, and Derry Tech/Londonderry College of Technology/North West Regional College. One influential example was a student of Littlewood's.
Many people below who initially focussed on maths, applied maths or theoretical physics ended up teaching (and perhaps also doing research in) more applied arenas, from stats, CS and OR to signal processing, engineering and informatics. Others had totally unrelated careers.
As usual, in a county which also has a municipality of the same name, there are instances where the records we have seen are unclear as to whether an individual was specifically born in Derry city or just somewhere in the surrounding county. In such cases, all we can say is that the person was born in Londonderry.
Comments, additions and corrections are, as always, welcome. As are more photographs.
Thanks to Olivia Bree (SPD), Sally McClean (Coleraine), Mark McCartney (Jordanstown), Pat Muldowney, Seamus Bellew (DKIT), Carl Murray (Queen Mary), Brian McMaster (QUB), Robin Harte, Aidan Kelly (met office)and John Toland (Cambridge) for valuable input. Furthermore, the library help team at Ulster University has been particularly helpful.
Last updated 8 Feb 2023.
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1. Isaiah Steen (1798-1871) was born in Balleney, near Coleraine, Londonderry. He attended the Royal College in Belfast (General Certificate in Arts 1818), and was a pastor in the years 1824-1833. Taking over from James Thomson at the Royal Belfast Academical Institute, following the latter's move to Glasgow, he taught at the Inst until 1870, also serving as head of maths. He published the very popular A Treatise on Mental Arithmetic, in Theory and Practice (Simpkin & Marshall, 1844). |
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2. James Bryce (1806-1877) was born 22 October in Killaig, Coleraine, Londonderry, and was educated at Glasgow (BA 1828, MA 1832). His career was spent teaching maths and geography at Belfast Acad Inst (1826-1840) then at the High School, Glasgow (1840-1874). His books included A Treatise on the Elements of Algebra (1837). He was also a geologist of note, and died due to a rock fall while working. He was awarded a Glasgow LLD (1868). |
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3. George Alexander Stitt (1822?-1860) was born in Londonderry, and was educated at TCD (BA 1845+, MA 1852. He spent his very short career as a clergyman. |
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4. Joseph Patton (1823-1852) was born in Londonderry, and was educated at TCD (BA 1844, MA). His tragically short career was spent at the Elphinstone Inst in Bombay. |
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5. Horace Townsend (later Payne-Townshend, 1824-1885) was born in Cork and grew up there and in Derry. He was educated at TCD (BA 1847+, MA 1877) and at Lincoln's Inn (1851). His career was spent making investments. |
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6. Samuel Lawrence [Laurence] (1826?- ) was born in Londonderry, and was educated at TCD (BA 1848+). Nothing further is known. |
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7. George Scott (1830?-1910) was born in Londonderry, He was educated at TCD (BA & gold medal 1851+, MA 1858). He worked mostly as a tutor, and ran his own Military Academy on Leeson St in the 1870s. He contributed to the Educational Times. Later in live he also made extensive stuudies of languages. 1901 Census / Edu Times / 1874 / Obit |
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8. Mathematician and physicist John Leebody (1840-1927) was born January in Ballinderry, Antrim, and was educated at Queen's (BA 1862, MA 1863), later being awarded an honorary DSc (1882). His long career was spent at Magee College in Derry, where he rose to the rank of president. He was also engaged in chemical analysis for Derry's water supply, published extensively and gave numerous public lectures on a wide variety of scientific matters, and was an early supporter of higher education for women. |
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09B. George R. Thompson Snr (1842??- ) was born in Belfast?, Antrim, and was brought up there and in Feeny?, Derry. He was educated at Queen's Galway (BSc 1863?). His career was spent teaching, first at Belfast Acad Inst (1865-1866) and then at Doveton College Calcutta. He later served as a schools inspector. |
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10. William Stoops (1844?-1919) was born in Castleblayney, Monaghan, and was educated at Queen's College Cork (BA 1874). At first he taught at the Coleraine Academic Institute, then in 1881 he became the headmaster at the Newry Intermediate School, Down, where he stayed until 1917. He contributed to the Educational Times. Obit 1 / Obit 2 / Educational Times / 1901 Census / 1911 Census |
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11. John Young (1848?-1914) was born in Newry, Down, and was educated at Queen's Belfast (BA & Gold Medal 1868, MA 1882). For many years he taught at the Londonderry Academical Institution, then from 1888 until his death he ran the Portadown News in Armagh. Bio / Death / Edu Times 1893 / Edu Times 1900 / 1901 Census / 1911 Census |
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12. Judge and politician John Gordon (1849-1922) was born 23 Nov in Londonderry, and was educated at Queen's Galway (BA 1873, LLB 1876, LLD 1882) where he had a senior scholarship in maths. His career was spent in law and politics, serving as MP and also as Attorney General of Ireland. |
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13. Engineer and mathematician John Perry (1850-1920) was born 14 Feb in Garvagh, Londonderry. He was educated at Queen's Belfast (BE & gold medal 1870, MA 1882), and his academic career included short stints in Bristol (1871-1874), Glasgow (1874-1875, with William Thomson, aka Kelvin, whom he successfully challenged on the subject of thermal conductivity), and Imperial College (Tokyo, 1875-1878) before setting down at Finsbury Technical College in 1882 and later Imperial College (1896-1913). He authored 5 books on mechanics and applied maths, including one on spinning tops. He received an honorary DSc from RUI in 1886, and an honorary LLD from Glasgow in 1901. His sister Agnes (below) also did maths, and his nieces included pioneering early engineering graduate Alice and mathematics graduate Agnes (Molly). |
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14. Alfred Hamilton Rentoul (1850-1922) was born in Londonderry and was educated at Queen's Belfast (BA 1872, MA 1882). His career was spent as a clergyman in Longford. |
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15. Physicist Alexander Larmor (1858?-1936) was born in Magheragall, Antrim, and was educated at Queen's Belfast (BA 1879, MA 1881) and Cambridge (Clare, 11th wrangler 1884, part III 1885, MA 1888). He got fellowships both at Clare and at Owen's College, Manchester. Most of his career was spent teaching at the Londonderry Academy, where he served as head, and from 1907 on at Magee College, as prof of natural philosophy.. He authored some books on Euclid's geometry. Cambridge / Nature / Obit / 1901 Census / 1911 Census |
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16. Agnes Perry (later Ehrhardt, 1858-1940) was born 1 June in Garvagh, south of Coleraine, Londonderry, and grew up there and in Belfast, a sister of engineer and mathematician John above. She was educated at Newnham (BA earned 1883). She taught WHERE? In 1891, she married Albert Ehrhardt. Her nieces included pioneering early engineering graduate Alice and mathematics graduate Agnes (Molly). |
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17. Physicist Alexander Anderson (1858-1936) was born 16 May in Camus, Coleraine, Londonderry, and was educated at Queen's Galway (BA 1880, MA 1881) and Cambridge (Sidney Sussex, 6th wrangler 1884, MA 1888). He was on the Galway staff for half a century, where he also served as president. He is credited as being the first to consider black holes as real physical entities, in a 1920 paper. He received DSc degrees from Glasgow (1901) and NUI (1908). Wikipedia / DIB / UCG / Cambridge / 1901 Census / 1911 Census |
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18. Bessie Anderson (sister of Alexander above, 1862?-1927) was born in Camus, Coleraine, Londonderry, and was educated at Queen's Galway (BA, 1888), being the first woman to graduate from that institution. She taught at Victoria College (? -1901) and then at Rutland High School 1901-1923). 1901 Census / 1911 Census / Obit / School |
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19. Mathematical physicist Thomas Lyle (1860-1944) was born 26 Aug in Coleraine, Londonderry. He was educated at TCD (BA 1883, MA 1887) and taught at UCD briefly before moving to Melbourne as chair of natural philosophy. His interests included X-rays and electrical power. TCD awarded him DSc in 1905. Wiki / Aus Dic Bio / NOVA / audio |
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20. John McVicker (1861-?) was born in Londonderry, and was educated at Queen's, Belfast (BSc 1882) and Oxford. No career details are known. |
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21. David A. Stewart (1861-1934?) was born 11 August in Belfast, Antrim, and was educated at Queen's Belfast (BA 1881, MA 1882) and Cambridge (Gonville & Caius, 6th wrangler 1885, part II 1886, MA 1889). He was vice-principal at Chester Training College before serving as a clergyman (mostly in England) for the rest of his life. He also taught for a few years at Foyle College in Derry. QUB / Cambridge / 1901 Census |
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22. Charles McVicker (1862-1933) was born 20 July in Londonderry, and was educated at TCD (BA 1886, MA 1893) and Cambridge (Christ's, 17th wrangler 1892). He taught at St Mary's College (Hammersmith) for part of his career. Bio 1 / Bio 2 / Edu Times 1 / Edu Times 2 |
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23. James Adams Stewart (1865-1906) was born 1 December in Darvagh, south of Coleraine, Londonderry, and was educated at Queen's Belfast (BA 1888). His short career was spent as the principal of the Academic Institute in Boyle, Roscommon. He also set up The Electric Light and Power Works there, which in his later years manufactured ice as well. His wife Catherine continued to run the business after his death. |
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24.James Workman (1866-1955) was born 16 November in Mullan, Aghadowey, Londonderry, and was educated at Queen’s Belfast (BA 1888, MA 1899). He taught at Methodist College at first, and then from 1910 on in Simcoe, Ontario. |
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25. William Allison (1866-1923) was born in Londonderry and was educated at Queen's, Belfast (BA 1888). He taught at Campbell School (founded 1894) from 1896 until his death. |
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26. William Henry (1868-1895) was born 1 Apr in Gorticloughan, Ballyshane, near Coleraine, Londonderry. He was educated at TCD (BA 1890) and was teaching at Coleraine Acad Inst when he died 5 years later. |
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27. Samuel Willis (1869-1916) was born 22 Nov in Mountcharles, west of Donegal town. He was educated at TCD (BA 1896) and taught at Coleraine Acad Inst. He died in the Battle of the Somme. |
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28. Physicist John McClelland (1870-1920) was born 1 Dec at Macosquin, Coleraine, Londonderry. He was educated at Queen's Galway (BA 1892, MA 1893) and then studied at Cambridge. Most of his relatively short career was spent doing pioneering research at UCD. He received a DSc from NUI (1906) and an honorary DSc from TCD (1917). |
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29. William Houston (1871-1953) was born 18 Jan in Ballyclabber, Coleraine, Londonderry. He was educated at Queen's Belfast (BA 1892, MA 1896) and at Cambridge (St John's, 5th wrangler 1896, part II 1897). His career was spent at Cambridge, followed by 4 years at UCG, then he became assistant commissioner of education for Ireland. |
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30. James Hezlett (1875-1963) was born 26 June in Ballyversal, east of Coleraine, Londonderry, and was educated at Galway (BA 1897), where he briefly taught physics. His career was spent in the civil service in India. |
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31. George R. Thompson Jnr (1876-1945) was born 19 Aug in Jubbulpore (Madhya Pradesh), India, and grew up in Londonderry. He was educated at Cambridge (Sidney Sussex, BA 1900) and also at RUI (BSc 1901, MSc 1902). He taught at Campbell College (1900-1910), Harrow School (1910-1912) and Gresham's School in Norfolk (1912-1936). He married a Girton maths tripos woman. 1901 Census / Bio / Sextic |
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32. Samuel Smyth (1877-1953) was born 18 Mar in Coleraine, Londoderry, and was educated at Queen’s Belfast (BA 1899). His career was spent in the civil service in India and Burma. |
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33. Samuel Semple (1877-1945) was born 12 Apr in Altnagalvin, Derry, and was educated at TCD (BA 1901, MA, BD) also earning an RUI BSc (1902). In WWI he served as a chaplain in Gallipoli. For many years he served as the principal of the Scots College in Safad (Palestine). |
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34. Robert Martin Houston (1880-1947) was born 2 Feb in Ballyclabber, Coleraine, Londonderry, and was educated at Queen's Belfast (BSc 1901). No career information is known. |
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35. William Gilmore (1884-1968-?) was born 11 Sept in Waterside, Killowen, Coleraine, Londonderry. He was educated at TCD (BA 1907, BAI 1908) and worked for many years as en engineer and surveyor in Thailand. In 1933 he returned to Belfast. |
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36. Doctor Billy Lynd (1887-1947) was born 9 April in Drumsteeple, Aghadowey, Londonderry, He was educated at QUB (BA 1908, MD??) and spent his career as a doctor, first in Belfast and then in Cheshire. |
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37. Engineer Harry Nicholls (1889-1975) was born in Londonderry and was educated at TCD (BA 1911, cert in practical eng 1913). He was a civil engineer for Dublin Corporation and was also a trade unionist and a rebel in 1916. 1901 Census / 1911 Census / Bio1 / Bio2 / Aimn |
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38. Mary Darragh (later Montgomery, 1891?-??) was born 4 January in Coleraine, Londonderry and grew up there and in Carrigfergus and Belfast. She was educated at QUB (BA 1912, MSc 1913). Her master's thesis on "Combination Tones" was done under William Morton; the pair published a related paper on the theory of hearing in 1914. She taught at Princess Gardens School (1914-) and Methodist College (-1916-1918-) in Belfast. She married Thomas Montgomery in 1924. 1901 Census / 1911 Census / 1914 / Paper |
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39. William Millar Perry (1892 to at least 1931) was born 15 Mar in Ballymoney, Antrim and raised in Londonderry. He was educated at TCD (BA 1914, MA 1918). No career information is known, but he spent time in Jamaica in the 1920s. |
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40. Margaret Kennedy (1894-1978) was born 22 January in Pleasurestep, Ballymoney, Antrim, and grew up in Portstewart, Londonderry. She was educated at QUB (BSc 1914). Her career was spent teaching, first as part of the Zanana Presbyterian Mission in private girls' schools in Bombay and New Delhi (1919-1929), and at the Trafalgar Institute in Montreal (1930-1932), then back at Cranagh House, Coleraine. She later taught in Portballintra (Antrim) and at the Masonic School in Belfast. |
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41. Bernard Conlin (1894-1916) was born in 21 May in Derry city, and was educated at TCD (BA 1915). He died the following year in the battle of the Somme. |
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41A. Daisy Wilson (1894-1970) was born 4 November in Derry city, and was educated at McCrea Magee College (briefly) and at TCD (scholar 1916, BA 1917, MA). She is known to have taught at Barr's Hill School in Coventry (at least 1935-1939). She died in Yorkshire. |
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41B. Gerard De Sachy (1902-1987) was born 22 April in Londonderry, and was educated at UCD (BSc 1924, MSc 1925, HDip). He career included a stint as a research officer in physics at UCD, and later working for the VEC sector. He was principal at Capel St Tech in the 1950s. |
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42. Dermot O'Riordan (1904-1985) was born in Derry city and was educated at UCD (BA 1924, MA 1925, BE 1927). He worked on the Shannon hydroelectric scheme 1927-1930 and then at the ESB 1930-1969. |
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43. George Hickson (1908-1967) was born 30 Sep in Killibury, Londonderry, and was educated at Maynooth (BSc 1929). His career was spent as a clergyman in Liverpool. 1911 Census / Bio / Death |
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44. Jane McGinty (1909- ) was born 10 May in Derry city, and was educated at UCD (BA 1929). Nothing else is known. |
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45. Shane Tierney (1910-1987) was born 20 Jan in Derry city, and was educated at UCD (BA & BSc 1929). He taught at St Columb's in Derry for a while, and from 1939 on worked in the Irish Met office, rising to rank of assistant director. In 1982, he became the first president of the Irish Met Society. |
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46. Philip Gormley (1910-1973) was born 22 August in Claudy, near Derry, and was educated at first at UCD (BSc 1930, MSc 1931), earning an NUI Travelling Studentship. His 1933 PhD from Edinburgh on "A Correspondence between Null and Ordinary Geodesics, its Properties, and Straneo’s Unified Theory" was done under E. T. Whittaker. He taught at UCD for 40 years, and was a keen translator of Russian mathematics. 1911 Census / Obit / Prize |
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47. Alfred Gwilliam (1912-1984) was born in Wigan, England, and was educated nearby at Liverpool (BSc 1932) and at Cambridge (PhD 1935). His thesis on "Some Problems In The Theory Of Functions" was done under J. E. Littlewood. He taught at Methody in Belfast (1935-1944), and then for many decades at Rainey,in Magherafelt. |
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48. Billy Todd (1913-1981) was born 2 Nov in Carnacally, Down, brother of mathematician Jack Todd. He was educated at QUB (BSc 1936). He then taught at Methody in Belfast (war years excepted) and then at Rainey in Magherafelt, Londonderry (1958-1978). |
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49. Theoretical physicist Barry Spain (1914-2007) was born 18 November in Derry city, Londonderry. He was educated at TCD (BA 1936, MSc 1938, MA 1957) and at the University of Edinburgh (PhD 1939), his thesis on "A nuclear statistical model with applications to stability" being done under Klaus Fuchs, a man who later passed nuclear secrets to Moscow. His career was spend at Imperial College (1945-1947), TCD (1947-1957), and Sir John Cass College (1957-1980). He wrote five books, including Tensor Calculus--A concise Course (1953) and Analytical Conics (1957). His son Philip is also a mathematician. |
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50. Neil McCarron (1918-2003) was born 27 July in Redcastle, southwest of Moville, Inishowen, Donegal. He was educated in maths physics at Maynooth (BSc 1940), and taught for over 3 decades at St Columb's in Derry before spending another quarter of a century as a parish priest. |
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51. Eamonn Tierney (1918-2004) was born 16 Apr in Derry city and was educated at Maynooth (BSc 1940) and UCD (MSc 1945). He then taught at St Columb's back i n Derry (1945-1976), before spending the rest of his life in parish work. |
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52. James McMonagle (1919-2011) was born 1 Aug in Altaghaderry, Killea, Donegal, right across the border from Derry, where he went to school. He was educated at UCD (BA 1940, MA 1941, BSc 1942). His career was spent in the Irish Met office. |
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53. Applied mathematician Andrew Young (1919-1992) was born in 16 December in Edentown, Lancashire, England. He was educated first at St Andrews (BSc 1947, following war interruption) and during 2 decades at the Univ of Liverpool his expertise in geophysics resulted in a PhD on "The Rotation of the Earth's Axis" in 1959 under Harold Jeffreys. He then joined the staff at Coleraine (1968-1983) where he worked on biomathematical approaches to population dynamics, numerical analysis and OR. He supervised over 20 doctoral students, many of them Greek. |
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54. Ralph Henstock (1923-2007) was born 2 June, in Newstead, Nottinghamshire, England. He was educated at Cambridge (St John's, BA 1944) and at Birkbeck College, London (PhD 1948). His thesis on "Interval Functions and their Integrals" was done under Paul Dienes. After several stints at Birkbeck, QUB, Bristol and Lancaster, he settled down at Coleraine 1970-1988 where he also served as head. He authored 4 books on integration. |
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55. Derek Burgess (1924-2004) was born 2 April in Londonderry, and was educated at QUB (BSc 1945, MSc 1947) and Cambridge (PhD 1950), his thesis on Abstract Lebesgue-Stieltjes Integrals, Laplace-Stieltjes Transforms and Moment Problems, with Applications" being done with Frank Smithies. After a few years in Paris and at Magee in Londonderry, he returned to QUB where he served for 4 decades. He supervised several PhD theses in topology, and authored the 1966 textbook Analytical Topology. |
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56. A. Cormac Smith (1926-2009) was born 29 April in Glasgow and grew up there and in Portstewart, Londonderry. He was educated entirely at UCD (BSc 1947, MSc 1948, PhD 1954). His thesis on "Generalized Quaternion Algebra of Hamilton" was the first maths doctorate awarded there. It was for research originally suggested by Phil Gormley (with input from Jean Dieudonné at Nancy), done while he was teaching at Sandyhurst College (1950-1954), after a stint at Johns Hopkins (1948-1950). This was followed by spells at Computing Devices and Univ Ottawa (at least 1957-1959), and the College of Aeronautics in Cranfield. He then returned to Canada where he was on the staff at Windsor (1963-1991), supervising at least 3 PhD students there. |
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57. Joe Smyrl was born in Portstewart, Derry and was educated at QUB (BSc 1949, MSc 1950, PhD 1953). His master's thesis was on "The Lebesque Integral and Relative Differentiation" and his doctoral thesis on "Some Studies in Trigonometrical Ratios" was done under Sam Verblunsky. He was at QUB (1953-1954) and at the Royal College of Science and Technology in Glasgow (later the Univ of Strathclyde) for many decades (1956-1990?). He authored the text An Introduction to University Mathematics (1978). |
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58. Elizabeth Madill was born in Portstewart (?), Londonderry, and grew up there and in Coleraine. She was educated at Stranmillis and QUB (BSc 1951). She taught for a while at Portadown Tech (1956-??). |
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59. Dermot McLain (1932-2004) was born 25 Mar in Coleraine, Londonderry, and was educated at QUB (BSc 1952) and Cambridge (PhD 1956). His thesis on "A Class of Locally Nilpotent Groups" was done under Philip Hall. His career was spent at Glasgow, Cardiff and at Sheffield, where he was director of computing services. That last institution awarded him an honorary DSc upon his retirement in 1998. He published on curve fitting as well as group theory, and McLain groups are named after him. |
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60. Norbert Dunwoody (1932- ) was born in Belfast, and was educated at QUB (BSc 1954?, PhD 1958). His thesis on "A Theoretical Investigation of Forced Heat Convection by Laminar Flow Through Ducts" was done under Stanley Dennis. After a decade at QUB he moved to Coleraine. where he worked for over a quarter century. |
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61. James McGrotty (1938?-2017) born in Limavady, Londonderry, and was educated at QUB (BSc 1960?, MSc 1961, PhD 1964). His master's thesis on "Related Generalized Integrals of the Perron Type" and doctoral thesis on "Some Properties of the Riemann Complete and Variational Integrals" were both done under Ralph Henstock. Most of his career was spent at QUB. |
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62. Theoretical physicist Raymond Flannery (1941-2013) was born in Claudy, near Derry, and was educated at QUB (BSc 1961, PhD 1964). His thesis "Part 1: Some Properties of Three-Electron Atomic Systems : Part 2: Photoionization of Molecular Hydrogen" was done under Alan Stewart & Uno Öpik. After a postdoc there he spent most his career at Georgia Tech in Atlanta. |
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63. Charlie Rogers was born in Dublin and grew up in Naas, Kildare. He was educated at UCD (BSc 1961, MSc 1963?) where he was awarded an NUI Travelling Scholarship. After working at Rothamsted, he taught stats at Coleraine (1972?-1985?). Later he moved to the USA. |
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64. Jim Weston was educated at QUB (BSc 1966?,MSc 1967?, PhD 1989). His thesis was on "The Computation of Eigensystems Using an Array Processor". His career was spent at Coleraine |
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65. Maurice Clint was born on the Ards peninsula in Down and was educated at QUB (BSc 1963?, MSc 1964?, PhD 1970). His thesis on "The Eigensolution of Unsymmetric Matrices by Simultaneous Iteration" was done under Alan Jennings. After teaching for a few years at Coleraine, he settled in the CS dept at QUB. His interests include |
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66. James Caldwell was born 3 July in Macosquin, Coleraine, Londonderry. He was educated at QUB (BSc 1964, MSc 1966) and at Teessside (PhD 1974). His thesis on "Magnetostatic Field Calculations" was done under Dennis Gilbon. His career took him to Univ Southern Queensland, Sunderland Poly, Newcastle Poly, Univ North London, and Univ Hong Kong. |
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67. Ron McCartney was born 24 April in Belfast, Antrim, and grew up in Lisburn. He was educated at QUB (BSc 1964) and Exeter (PhD 1967+). His thesis on "Nets on Restricted Directed Sets: Countable Compactifications" was done under David Smith. His career included stints at Glasgow, Coleraine (1974-1977), Coleraine Acad Inst (1977-1979) and The Open University (1984-2007). He later taught at the Forman Christian College in Lahore, Pakistan. He published the book A Gentle Path into General Topology in 2022. |
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68. Mick McCrudden (1943-2015) was born in Derry city, and was educated at QUB (BSc 1964, MSc 1965) and at Birmingham. His master's thesis was on "Topological Semigroups" and his doctorate "On the Measure of Product Sets in Locally Compact Topological Groups" was done under Murray MacBeath. After a few years on the staff at Birmingham, he spent the rest of his career at Manchester.
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69. Gerry Shannon (1944-2010) was born in Glasgow, Scotland, and grew up there and in Cardiff. He was educated at Bangor, Wales (BSc 1965, postgrad research) and taught for 4 decades at UU Coleraine. Morris dancing / Papers / Paper |
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70. Peter Currie was born in England and educated at Manchester (BSc 1965) and East Anglia (MSc 1966, PhD 1968). His thesis on "Wave in Classes of Elastic Materials" was done under Limerick's Michael Hayes. He lectured at Coleraine (1970-1974) and UCD (1974-1978), before moving to Holland. After working in production technology (research and operations) for Shell (1978-1997), he worked on produced water re-injection andlectured in oil and gas production at Univ Delft. |
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71. Pat Muldowney was born near Thomastown, Kilkenny, and was educated at UCG (BSc 1967, MSc 1969) and Coleraine (PhD 1984). His thesis on "Application of Integration Theory to Statistics and Mechanics" was done under Ralph Henstock. He then taught for 36 years at Magee, where he co-supervised 2 PhDs overseas and authored the books General Theory of Integration in Function Spaces (1987) and A Modern Theory of Random Variation: With Applications in Stochastic Calculus, Financial Mathematics, and Feynman Integration (2012). His brother Jim is also a mathematician. |
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72. Theoretical physicist Andrew Whitaker was born 29 Jan in Portsmouth, England, and was educated at Oxford (BSc 1967, MSc 1971) and Nottingham (PhD 1971). His thesis on "Theory of Nuclear Magnetic Resonance" was done under Ken Stevens & Peter Mansfield. He taught at Coleraine 1970-1988 and then at QUB. He has authored numerous biographical books. |
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73. Paul McGill was born in Omagh, Tyrone, and was educated at QUB (BSc 1969, PhD 1973), his thesis on "Some Extensions of the Theory of Henstock Integration" being done under James McGrotty. His career included stints at UCG, Coleraine (1976?-1982?), Maynooth, UC Irvine and Univ Claude Bernard (Lyons).
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74. Tom McCallion was born in Derry city, and was educated at UCD (BSc 1968, MSc 1969). He taught for a while, then worked in the Dept of Finance. |
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75. Theoretical physicist Ian Taylor was born 13 Dec in Brighton, England, and mostly grew up in Limavady and Coleraine, Londonderry. He was educated at QUB (BSc 1969, PhD 1974), his thesis on "The Ionisation of Metastable Helium" being done under Arthur Kingston. His career was spent at UU Jordonstown, where he supervised 2 PhDs. |
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75B. Hilary Boyle (later McCartney) was born 20 May in Lisburn, Antrim, and was educated at first at Cambridge (Girton BA 1969) and then at Glasgow (MSc in stats, 1972), by which time she had married Ron McCartney above. She lectured at Coleraine on and off for over 20 years, doing her 1984 DPhil there on "" under Andrew Young & Charlie Rogers. Later, she taught at Forman Christian College in Pakistan (2008-2015). |
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76. John Toland was born 28 Apr in Derry city, and educated at QUB (BSc 1960) and Sussex (MSc 1971, PhD 1973). His thesis on "Topological Methods for Nonlinear Eigenvalue Problems" was done under Charles Stuart. His career has been spent at Essex, UC London, Bath and Cambridge. He has supervised 8 PhDs. His interests are in theoretical aspects of nonlinear ODEs and PDEs, especially those arising in mechanics and the study of water waves. |
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77. Ray Hickey was educated at Coleraine (BSc 1973?) and Oxford (MA 1974). He then taught at Coleraine until about 2011. |
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77B. David McSherry was born in Newry, Down, and was educated at QUB (BSc 1973, MSc 1974, PhD 1976), his thesis on "A Study of Binary Relations In General Topology" being done under Derek Burgess. Switching to CS, he spent a decade in biometrics at QUB and after a stint at Lancaster University settled at Ulster University, Coleraine, for the rest of his career. |
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78. Statistician and operations researcher Sally McClean was born in April in Belfast and educated at Oxford (MA 1970), Cardiff (MSc stats & OR 1972) and Coleraine (PhD 1976). Her thesis on "Stochastic Models of Manpower Planning Applied to Several British and Irish Firms" was done under Andrew Young. She has been at Coleraine since 1971, apart from a mid-career stint at UU Jordanstown (1992-2003). She has supervised about 40 doctorates, co-authored the book Statistical Techniques for Manpower Planning (1979), and co-edited 4 others. Her expertise spans CS too and her interests include workforce modelling, health administration, interactive architecture, and survey methodology. Wikipedia / UU / GoogleScholar |
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79. Applied mathematician John Adam was born in Salisbury, Wiltshire, England, and grew up in Reading, He was educated at Queen Eliz College, London (BSc 1971) and Univ College London (PhD 1974). His thesis on "A Theoretical Study of Magnetohydrodynamic Processes in Solar Active Regions" was done under Gillian Peach & Carole Jordan. After stints at Sussex (1974-1976) and St Andrews (1976-1978) he spent 1978-1983 at Coleraine, also briefly being a scholar at DIAS (1978-1979). Since 1984 he has been at Dominion Univ in Norfolk, Virginia. He has written several books. |
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80. Astronomer John McFarland was born in Limavady, Londonderry, and was educated at QUB (BSc 1972, MSc in physics 1974, MSc in astronomy 1984). He worked at the Armagh Obs for many years as librarian and historian, and authored The Armagh Observatory (2007). |
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81. Theoretical physicist Ken Taylor was born in Derry city and educated at QUB (BSc 1973, PhD 1976). His PhD was done under Phil Burke. His career took him to the USA and back to Royal Holloway, followed by 2 decades at QUB. |
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82. Statistician Norma Glasgo Reid was born 28 Apr in Limavady, Londonderry, and was educated at Sussex (BSc 1973?, MSc 1974?) and Coleraine (DPhil 1983). Her thesis on "A Multivariate Statistical Investigation of the Factors Affecting Nurse Training in the Clinical Area" was done under Andrew Young. She has worked in health services research and nurse education, especially at Coleraine (1978-1984), Coventry and Plymouth, also publishing two key books. She later worked in university administration in South Africa.
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82B. Hugh Morrison was born in Derry city, and was educated in theoretical physics at QUB (BSc 1974, PhD 1977). His thesis on "Impact-parameter Calculations: Application to Proton-hydrogen and He p2 s - Hydrogen Collisions" was done under Uno Öpik. He taught at the Belfast Royal Academy (1978-1990), and then lectured on PGCE training at QUB (1990-2013). He co-authored the school book Additional Mathematics (1994). He has supervised 11 PhD students in education, some of them in maths ed. Research Gate / Edu 1 / Edu 2 |
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83. Chris Stretch was born in England and was educated at Oxford (BSc 1978?, DPhil 1981). His thesis "A Topic in Algebraic Topology " was under under Graeme Segal. After a few years in Australia, he worked at Coleraine for over 3 decades. |
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84. Data scientist Fionn Murtagh was born in Dublin and educated at first at TCD (BA & BAI 1976, MSc in CS 1979). His 1981+ PhD on "Hierarchical Ascending Classification and Discriminant Factor Analysis Subject to Contiguity Constraint" was done at Univ Pierre-et-Marie-Curie (Paris VI) under Jean-Paul Benzécri. His career has taken him to UCD, the European Space Agency, Magee (1996-1999), QUB, Royal Holloway and Huddersfield. He has supervised many PhDs and co-authored or co-edited a dozen books. |
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85. Image processing expert Philip Morrow was born in Portadown, Londonderry, and was educated entirely at QUB (BSc 1981, MSc 1982, PHd 1993), his thesis on "Software Development Tools for Parallel Image Processing on Transputers" being done under ?. His career has mostly been spent at Coleraine, where he has supervised over 20 PhDs. |
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86. Mathematical biologist Philip Maini was born 16 October in Magherafelt, Londonderry, and was educated at Oxford (BA 1982, DPhill 1985), where he has spent most of his career. His thesis "On Mechano-Chemical Models for Morphogenetic Pattern Formation" was done under Jim Murray. |
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87. Geoff Brown was born in Magherafelt, Londonderry, and was educated at Oxford (BA 1986) and QUB (PhD 1989+). His thesis on "Variational Principles in Atomic Collisions and Electromagnetism" was done with Derrick Crothers. He remained at QUB till about 1998, when he started teaching at Belfast Royal Academy, where is now vice principal. |
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88. Seamus Bellew was born in August in Castleblakeney, Galway, and was educated at first at Maynooth (BSc 1988, MSc 1990) where he was awarded an NUI Travelling Studentship. After 2 year at the Univ Maryland College Park, he taught at the North West Regional College (Londonderry) 1993-1999, and since then has been at Dundalk IT. He also has a 2003 MSc from DCU done under Eugene O’Riordan. |
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89. Statistician Gwyneth Mulholland was born in Portstewart, Derry, and in 1986 earned BA in economics & stats at St Andrews in Scotland. Her 1993 DPhil on "Wage Formation and Productivity Growth in the Regions of the UK 1968-87" was done at UU Jordanstown, where she subsequently taught 1998-2016. |
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90. Engineer Keith Seffen was born in July in Magherafelt, Derry, and was educated at Cambridge (BA 1993, PhD 1997), his thesis on "Analysis of Structures Deployed by Tape-Springs" being done under Sergio Pellegrino. Most of his career has been spent at Cambridge, where he now professor of engineering mechanics. His interests include non-linear, large-displacement behaviour dynamics. |
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91. Michael Gormley was born in Derry and was educated at QUB (BSc 1997?, PhD 2001). His thesis on "Aspects of the Embeddability Ordering in Topology" was don under Brian McMaster. His career has been a teacher, and he is now the principal of St Patrick's in Dungiven, south of Liimavady. |
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92. Statistician Claire Gormley was born 30 Dec in Desertmartin, Derry, near Magherafelt. She was educated at TCD (BA 2003, PhD 2006+), her thesis on "Statistical Models for Rank Data" being done under Brendan Murphy. Her career so far has been at UCD, where she has supervised 4 PhDs. She works on statistical methods for the analysis of high dimensional data, often of mixed type. In 2021 she became UCD's first woman full professor of statistics. |
![1901 Census](https://www.mathsireland.ie/blog/Pics/GilmoreWilliam1966.jpg">Link</a>%20<a href = "http:/www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1901/Londonderry/Coleraine/Waterside_Street/1518090){kind=link}
