Andrew White Young (10 October 1891 – 20 July 1968) was a Scottish mathematician, natural scientist, and lawyer. He conducted research on ''Temperature

Seiche A seiche ( ) is a standing wave in an enclosed or partially enclosed body of water. Seiches and seiche-related phenomena have been observed on lakes, reservoirs, swimming pools, bays, harbors, caves and seas. The key requirement for formation o ...

s in

Loch Earn Loch Earn (Scottish Gaelic language, Scottish Gaelic, ''Loch Eire/Loch Éireann'') is a freshwater loch in the southern Scottish Highlands, highlands of Scotland, in the districts of Perth and Kinross and Stirling (council area), Stirling. Th ...

'' and presented papers on

Mathieu function In mathematics, Mathieu functions, sometimes called angular Mathieu functions, are solutions of Mathieu's differential equation : \frac + (a - 2q\cos(2x))y = 0, where a and q are parameters. They were first introduced by Émile Léonard Mathieu, ...

and

Lagrange polynomial In numerical analysis, the Lagrange interpolating polynomial is the unique polynomial of lowest degree of a polynomial, degree that polynomial interpolation, interpolates a given set of data. Given a data set of graph of a function, coordinate p ...

s. He was elected a Fellow of

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 ...

in 1937.

Life

Young was born on 10 October 1891 in

Roxburghshire Roxburghshire or the County of Roxburgh ( gd, Siorrachd Rosbroig) is a historic county and registration county in the Southern Uplands of Scotland. It borders Dumfriesshire to the west, Selkirkshire and Midlothian to the north-west, and Berw ...

, Scotland. His father was Thomas Young, a schoolmaster at Lanton. His early education was at Townshead Public School, Montrose, Broughton High School, Edinburgh and finally

George Watson's College George Watson's College is a co-educational Independent school (United Kingdom), independent day school in Scotland, situated on Colinton Road, in the Merchiston area of Edinburgh. It was first established as a Scottish education in the eight ...

where he showed an aptitude for a wide range of subjects, including English, Latin, Greek and Mathematics. At Edinburg University he obtained an MA (first class) in Mathematics (July 1913) and a

BSc A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University of ...

(special distinction) in Mathematics and Natural Philosophy (1914). In 1913 he was awarded the Donald Fraser Bursary (Experimental Physics) and the Vans Dunlop Scholarship (Mathematics), among others. In 1913, Young joined the

Edinburgh Mathematical Society The Edinburgh Mathematical Society is a mathematical society for academics in Scotland. History The Society was founded in 1883 by a group of Edinburgh school teachers and academics, on the initiative of Alexander Yule Fraser FRSE and Andrew Je ...

and from 1914 to 1919 he lectured at the

University of St Andrews (Aien aristeuein) , motto_lang = grc , mottoeng = Ever to ExcelorEver to be the Best , established = , type = Public research university Ancient university , endowment ...

and

London University The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree- ...

and published several papers. In February 1914 he presented a paper ''On the quasi-periodic solutions of Mathieu's differential equation'' at the Edinburgh Mathematical Society. In 1916 he presented ''On the Computation of a Lagrangian Interpolation''. Standing wave 2

Of particular importance was the research he conducted with Ernest M. Wedderburn on ''Temperature

s in

'', which was published in several parts in the journal ''Transactions of the

''. This research was still being referenced as late as 2017. St Fillans from Loch Earn Sailing Club

In 1919, Young joined the company of ''Messrs S. M. Bulley & Son, Cotton Merchants'' in

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

and represented them in

Bremen Bremen (Low German also: ''Breem'' or ''Bräm''), officially the City Municipality of Bremen (german: Stadtgemeinde Bremen, ), is the capital of the German state Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (''Freie Hansestadt Bremen''), a two-city-state consis ...

, Germany until 1926. Young married Margaret Macgregor in 1920. In 1926, he returned to the University of Edinburgh and obtained an

LLB Bachelor of Laws ( la, Legum Baccalaureus; LL.B.) is an undergraduate law degree in the United Kingdom and most common law jurisdictions. Bachelor of Laws is also the name of the law degree awarded by universities in the China, People's Republic ...

in 1929 and became a

Writer to the Signet The Society of Writers to His Majesty's Signet is a private society of Scottish solicitors, dating back to 1594 and part of the College of Justice. Writers to the Signet originally had special privileges in relation to the drawing up of document ...

, again under E.M. Wedderburn. He joined the firm of ''Messrs J. & R. A. Robertson, Writers to the Signet'' as a partner. Throughout his life, he retained an interest in mathematics, science and law. He was elected a Fellow of

on 1 March 1937, his proposers being Charles H. O'Donoghue, Alexander C. Aitken,

Ernest Wedderburn Sir Ernest MacLagan Wedderburn (3 February 1884 – 3 June 1958) was a Scottish lawyer, and a significant figure both in the civic life of Edinburgh and in the legal establishment. He held the posts of Professor of Conveyancing in the Universi ...

and

Edmund T. Whittaker Sir Edmund Taylor Whittaker (24 October 1873 – 24 March 1956) was a British mathematician, physicist, and historian of science. Whittaker was a leading mathematical scholar of the early 20th-century who contributed widely to applied mathema ...

. From 1947 to 1957, he was Treasurer of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and from 1958 to 1960 he served as its Vice-President. Young died on 20 July 1968 after a period of illness.

Sources

*Andrew White Young, M.A., BSc, LL.B. (Edin.), W.S., Royal Society of Edinburgh Year Book 1970, 53–54.

References

External links

Donald Fraser Bursary
at the University of Edinburgh {{DEFAULTSORT:Young, Andrew 1891 births 1968 deaths Academics of the University of Edinburgh Alumni of the University of Edinburgh College of Science and Engineering People educated at George Watson's College Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Scottish solicitors

Life

See also

Sources

References

External links