Edward John Nanson (13 December 1850 – 1 July 1936) was a

mathematician A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, structure, space, models, and change. History On ...

known for devising

Nanson's method The Borda count electoral system can be combined with an instant-runoff procedure to create hybrid election methods that are called Nanson method and Baldwin method (also called Total Vote Runoff or TVR). Both methods are designed to satisfy the ...

, a Condorcet-compliant variation of the

Borda count The Borda count is a family of positional voting rules which gives each candidate, for each ballot, a number of points corresponding to the number of candidates ranked lower. In the original variant, the lowest-ranked candidate gets 0 points, the ...

using successive elimination to find a winner. He was born in

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

and received his professional education at

Trinity College Trinity College may refer to: Australia * Trinity Anglican College, an Anglican coeducational primary and secondary school in , New South Wales * Trinity Catholic College, Auburn, a coeducational school in the inner-western suburbs of Sydney, New ...

from 1870 to 1874. In 1875, he was appointed Professor of Mathematics at the

University of Melbourne The University of Melbourne is a public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in Victoria. Its main campus is located in Parkville, an inner suburb no ...

, in the state of

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

, Australia where he immigrated. Nanson was an election reformer and office bearer of the Proportional Representation League of Victoria who produced several booklets on election methods. He retired from his lifetime appointment in 1922. At the time of his death, he was survived by ten children from two marriages. The Professor Nanson Prize was named in his honour, which is annually awarded to students for outstanding achievements in pure and applied mathematics.

Footnotes

# "Methods of Election" Transactions and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria, vol. 18; 1882; pages 197–240; #954.

External links

*
Australian electoral reform and two concepts of representation
An article discussing Nanson's work by Iain McLean.

Text of pamphlet by Nanson.
Professor E. J. Nanson's death
National Library of Australia's digitised Australian Newspaper article 1850 births 1936 deaths Mathematicians from Melbourne British emigrants to colonial Australia Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge University of Melbourne faculty {{mathematician-stub