H.F. Baker
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Henry Frederick Baker FRS
FRSE Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE) is an award granted to individuals that the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland's national academy of science and letters, judged to be "eminently distinguished in their subject". This soci ...
(3 July 1866 – 17 March 1956) was a British
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 ...
, working mainly in
algebraic geometry Algebraic geometry is a branch of mathematics, classically studying zeros of multivariate polynomials. Modern algebraic geometry is based on the use of abstract algebraic techniques, mainly from commutative algebra, for solving geometrical ...
, but also remembered for contributions to
partial differential equation In mathematics, a partial differential equation (PDE) is an equation which imposes relations between the various partial derivatives of a Multivariable calculus, multivariable function. The function is often thought of as an "unknown" to be sol ...
s (related to what would become known as
soliton In mathematics and physics, a soliton or solitary wave is a self-reinforcing wave packet that maintains its shape while it propagates at a constant velocity. Solitons are caused by a cancellation of nonlinear and dispersive effects in the medium ...
s), and
Lie group In mathematics, a Lie group (pronounced ) is a group that is also a differentiable manifold. A manifold is a space that locally resembles Euclidean space, whereas groups define the abstract concept of a binary operation along with the additio ...
s.


Early life

He was born in
Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...
the son of Henry Baker, a butler, and Sarah Ann Britham.


Education

He was educated at
The Perse School (He who does things for others does them for himself) , established = , closed = , type = Public schoolIndependent day school , religion = Nondenominational Christian , president = , head_label = Head , he ...
before winning a scholarship to
St John's College, Cambridge St John's College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge founded by the House of Tudor, Tudor matriarch Lady Margaret Beaufort. In constitutional terms, the college is a charitable corpo ...
in October 1884. Baker graduated as Senior Wrangler in 1887, bracketed with 3 others.


Career

Baker was elected Fellow of St John's in 1888 where he remained for 68 years. In June, 1898 he was elected a
Fellow of the Royal Society Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the judges of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural science, natural knowledge, incl ...
. In 1911, he gave the presidential address to the
London Mathematical Society The London Mathematical Society (LMS) is one of the United Kingdom's learned societies for mathematics (the others being the Royal Statistical Society (RSS), the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications (IMA), the Edinburgh Mathematical S ...
. Baker was one of the mathematicians (along with E. W. Hobson) to whom Srinivasa Ramanujan wrote before G. H. Hardy but his papers were returned without comment. In January 1914 he was appointed
Lowndean Professor of Astronomy The Lowndean chair of Astronomy and Geometry is one of the two major Professorships in Astronomy (alongside the Plumian Professor of Astronomy and Experimental Philosophy, Plumian Professorship) and a major Professorship in Mathematics at Universit ...
. Gordon Welchman recalled that in the 1930s before the war
Dennis Babbage Dennis William Babbage (26 April 1909 – 9 June 1991) was an English mathematician associated with Magdalene College, Cambridge, and with codebreaking at Bletchley Park during World War II. In 1980 Babbage was President of Magdalene College, Cam ...
and he were members of a group of geometers known as Professor Baker's "Tea Party", who met once a week to discuss the areas of research in which we were all interested. He married twice. Firstly in 1893 to Lilly Isabella Hamfield Klopp, who died in 1903, then he remarried in 1913, to Muriel Irene Woodyard. He died in Cambridge and is buried at the Parish of the Ascension Burial Ground, with his second wife Muriel (1885 - 1956).


See also

* Baker–Campbell–Hausdorff formula


Publications

* * * * * *
Abel's theorem and the allied theory, including the theory of the theta functions
(Cambridge: The University Press, 1897)
An introduction to the theory of multiply periodic functions
(Cambridge: The University Press, 1907) * 1943 ''An Introduction to Plane Geometry''


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Baker, H. F. 1866 births 1956 deaths 19th-century British mathematicians 20th-century British mathematicians Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge Fellows of St John's College, Cambridge Senior Wranglers Fellows of the Royal Society Lowndean Professors of Astronomy and Geometry PDE theorists De Morgan Medallists People educated at The Perse School