Prof Ian Naismith Sneddon
FRS FRSE FIMA OBE (8 December 1919 Glasgow, Scotland – 4 November 2000 Glasgow, Scotland) was a Scottish mathematician who worked on analysis and applied mathematics.
Life
Sneddon was born in
Glasgow
Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...
on 8 December 1919, the son of Mary Ann Cameron and Naismith Sneddon. He was educated at
Hyndland School in Glasgow.
He studied mathematics and physics at the
University of Glasgow
, image = UofG Coat of Arms.png
, image_size = 150px
, caption = Coat of arms
Flag
, latin_name = Universitas Glasguensis
, motto = la, Via, Veritas, Vita
, ...
, graduating with a BSc. He then went to the University of Cambridge, gaining an MA in 1941. From 1942 to 1945, during
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
, he served as a Scientific Officer to the
Ministry of Supply. After the war he worked as a Research Officer for H H Wills Laboratory at the
University of Bristol
, mottoeng = earningpromotes one's innate power (from Horace, ''Ode 4.4'')
, established = 1595 – Merchant Venturers School1876 – University College, Bristol1909 – received royal charter
, type ...
. In 1946, he began lecturing in Natural Philosophy (physics) at the University of Glasgow.
In 1950, he received a professorship at
University College
In a number of countries, a university college is a college institution that provides tertiary education but does not have full or independent university status. A university college is often part of a larger university. The precise usage varies ...
,
North Staffordshire
The federation of Stoke-on-Trent was the 1910 amalgamation of the six Staffordshire Potteries towns of Burslem, Tunstall, Stoke-upon-Trent, Hanley, Fenton and Longton into the single county borough of Stoke-on-Trent. An anomaly in the history ...
. In 1956, he returned to the University of Glasgow as Professor of Mathematics.
In 1958, he was elected a Fellow of the
Royal Society of Edinburgh. His proposers were
Robert Alexander Rankin
Robert Alexander Rankin FRSE FRSAMD (27 October 1915 – 27 January 2001) was a Scottish mathematician who worked in analytic number theory.
Life
Rankin was born in Garlieston in Wigtownshire the son of Rev Oliver Rankin (1885–1954), minister ...
,
Philip Ivor Dee
Philip Ivor Dee CBE FRS FRSE (8 April 1904, Stroud – 17 April 1983, Glasgow) was a British nuclear physicist. He was responsible for the development of airborne radar during the Second World War. Glasgow University named the Philip Ivor Dee M ...
,
William Marshall Smart
William Marshall Smart (9 March 1889, Doune, Perthshire – 17 September 1975, Lancaster) was a 20th-century Scottish astronomer.
Life
He was born in Doune in Stirlingshire the son of Peter Fernie Smart and his wife, Isabella Marshall Harrowe ...
and
Edward Copson. He won the Society's Makdougall-Brisbane Prize for the period 1956-58. In 1983, he was further elected a Fellow of the
Royal Society of London
The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...
.
He retired in 1985, and died in Glasgow on 4 November 2000.
Family
In 1943, he married Mary Campbell Macgregor.
Research
Sneddon's research was published widely including:
* with
Nevill Mott
Sir Nevill Francis Mott (30 September 1905 – 8 August 1996) was a British physicist who won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1977 for his work on the electronic structure of magnetic and disordered systems, especially amorphous semiconductors. ...
: Wave mechanics and its applications, 1948
* Fourier transforms, 1951
* Special functions of mathematical physics and chemistry, 1956
* Elements of partial differential equations, 1957
* with James George Defares: An introduction to the mathematics of medicine and biology, 1960
* Mixed boundary problems in potential theory, 1966
* Lectures on transform methods, 1967
* with Morton Lowengrub: Crack problems in the classical theory of elasticity, 1969
* The use of integral transforms, 1972
* The linear theory of thermoelasticity, 1974
* Encyclopaedic dictionary of mathematics for engineers and applied scientists, 1976
* The use of operators of fractional integration in applied mathematics, 1979
* with
E. L. Ince: The solution of ordinary differential equations, 1987
Awards and honours
Sneddon received Honorary Doctorates from
Warsaw University
The University of Warsaw ( pl, Uniwersytet Warszawski, la, Universitas Varsoviensis) is a public university in Warsaw, Poland. Established in 1816, it is the largest institution of higher learning in the country offering 37 different fields of ...
(1873),
Heriot-Watt University (1982)
University of Hull
, mottoeng = Bearing the Torch f learning, established = 1927 – University College Hull1954 – university status
, type = Public
, endowment = £18.8 million (2016)
, budget = £190 million ...
(1983) and
University of Strathclyde
The University of Strathclyde ( gd, Oilthigh Shrath Chluaidh) is a public research university located in Glasgow, Scotland. Founded in 1796 as the Andersonian Institute, it is Glasgow's second-oldest university, having received its royal chart ...
(1984).
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sneddon, Ian Naismith
Fellows of the Royal Society
Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh
Scientists from Glasgow
1919 births
2000 deaths
20th-century Scottish mathematicians