Alexander "Sandy" Munro Davie (born 4 April 1946 in

Dundee Dundee (; sco, Dundee; gd, Dùn Dè or ) is Scotland's fourth-largest city and the 51st-most-populous built-up area in the United Kingdom. The mid-year population estimate for 2016 was , giving Dundee a population density of 2,478/km2 or ...

) is a Scottish mathematician and was the chess champion of Scotland in 1964, 1966, and 1969. He grew up in Dundee, attending the

High School of Dundee The High School of Dundee is an independent, co-educational, day school in Dundee, Scotland, which provides nursery, primary and secondary education to just over one thousand pupils. Its foundation has been dated to 1239, and it is the only priv ...

, and he was encouraged to play chess by

Nancy Elder Nancy Conchar Elder (25 May 1915 – 4 March 1981), née Gordon, was a Scottish chess master. She was a sixteen-times winner the Scottish Women's Chess Championship. Biography From the 1950s to the 1980s, Nancy Elder was one of Scotland's st ...

. He was the Scottish Chess Association's Scottish Boys' Champion in 1960 and 1962. He won the

Scottish Chess Championship The Scottish Chess Championship is organised by Chess Scotland, formerly the Scottish Chess Association. It has been running since 1884, and nowadays takes the form of a nine-round tournament played over two weekends and the week in between. Auxili ...

for 1964, 1966, and 1969 and in 1966 was a member of the Scottish team at the 13th World Student Team Chess Championship at

Örebro Örebro ( , ) is the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, sixth-largest city in Sweden, the seat of Örebro Municipality, and capital of the Örebro County. It is situated by the Närke Plain, near the lake Hjälmaren, a few kilometers in ...

, Sweden. His last

FIDE The International Chess Federation or World Chess Federation, commonly referred to by its French acronym FIDE ( Fédération Internationale des Échecs), is an international organization based in Switzerland that connects the various national c ...

rating was 2280. Davie received his PhD in 1970 from the

University of Dundee The University of Dundee; . Abbreviated as ''Dund.'' for post-nominals. is a public university, public research university based in Dundee, Scotland. It was founded as a University college#United Kingdom, university college in 1881 with a donation ...

. In 1973 he was elected a Fellow of the

Royal Society of Edinburgh The Royal Society of Edinburgh is Scotland's national academy of science and letters. It is a registered charity that operates on a wholly independent and non-partisan basis and provides public benefit throughout Scotland. It was established i ...

. He became a professor of mathematics at the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted a royal charter by King James VI in 15 ...

, where he is currently retired. His mathematical research deals with

dynamical system In mathematics, a dynamical system is a system in which a Function (mathematics), function describes the time dependence of a Point (geometry), point in an ambient space. Examples include the mathematical models that describe the swinging of a ...

s and

stochastic analysis Stochastic calculus is a branch of mathematics that operates on stochastic processes. It allows a consistent theory of integration to be defined for integrals of stochastic processes with respect to stochastic processes. This field was created an ...

. He also has "some interest in applications of analysis to PDE, complexity of matrix multiplication and applications of mathematics to biology, particularly protein folding." In 1986 he was an invited speaker at the

International Congress of Mathematicians The International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM) is the largest conference for the topic of mathematics. It meets once every four years, hosted by the International Mathematical Union (IMU). The Fields Medals, the Nevanlinna Prize (to be rename ...

Berkeley, California Berkeley ( ) is a city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, California, United States. It is named after the 18th-century Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland and Emer ...

Selected publications

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 2007 * * * *

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Davie, Alexander Munro 1946 births Living people People educated at the High School of Dundee Alumni of the University of Dundee Academics of the University of Edinburgh 20th-century Scottish mathematicians 21st-century Scottish mathematicians Dynamical systems theorists Probability theorists Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh People from Dundee Scottish chess players