Ioan Mackenzie James FRS (born 23 May 1928) is 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 in the field of

topology In mathematics, topology (from the Greek language, Greek words , and ) is concerned with the properties of a mathematical object, geometric object that are preserved under Continuous function, continuous Deformation theory, deformations, such ...

, particularly in

homotopy theory In mathematics, homotopy theory is a systematic study of situations in which maps can come with homotopies between them. It originated as a topic in algebraic topology but nowadays is studied as an independent discipline. Besides algebraic topolog ...

Biography

James was born in

Croydon Croydon is a large town in south London, England, south of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Croydon, a local government district of Greater London. It is one of the largest commercial districts in Greater London, with an extensi ...

Surrey Surrey () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant urban areas which form part of the Greater London Built-up Area. ...

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 was educated at

St Paul's School, London (''By Faith and By Learning'') , established = , closed = , type = Independent school Public school , religion = Church of England , president = , he ...

and

Queen's College, Oxford The Queen's College is a constituent college of the University of Oxford, England. The college was founded in 1341 by Robert de Eglesfield in honour of Philippa of Hainault. It is distinguished by its predominantly neoclassical architecture, ...

. In 1953 he earned a

D. Phil. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is a ...

from the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

for his thesis entitled ''Some problems in algebraic topology'', written under the direction of

J. H. C. Whitehead John Henry Constantine Whitehead FRS (11 November 1904 – 8 May 1960), known as Henry, was a British mathematician and was one of the founders of homotopy theory. He was born in Chennai (then known as Madras), in India, and died in Princeton, ...

. In 1957 he was appointed reader in pure mathematics, a post which he held until 1969. From 1959 until 1969 he was a senior research fellow at St John's College. He held the

Savilian Chair of Geometry The position of Savilian Professor of Geometry was established at the University of Oxford in 1619. It was founded (at the same time as the Savilian Professorship of Astronomy) by Sir Henry Savile, a mathematician and classical scholar who was ...

at the University of Oxford from 1970 to 1995. He is now a

professor emeritus ''Emeritus'' (; female: ''emerita'') is an adjective used to designate a retired chair, professor, pastor, bishop, pope, director, president, prime minister, rabbi, emperor, or other person who has been "permitted to retain as an honorary title ...

. 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 1968. In 1978 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 ...

awarded him the

Senior Whitehead Prize The Senior Whitehead Prize of the London Mathematical Society (LMS) is now awarded in odd numbered years in memory of John Henry Constantine Whitehead, president of the LMS between 1953 and 1955. The Prize is awarded to mathematicians normally ...

, which was established in honour of his doctoral supervisor, Whitehead. In 1984 he became President of the

. He married Rosemary Stewart, a writer and researcher in business management and healthcare management, in 1961. She died in 2015, aged 90.

Books

*, ''Topologies and Uniformities'' (Springer Undergraduate Mathematics Series), Springer, 1999. *, ''Remarkable Mathematicians, From Euler to von Neumann'', Cambridge University Press, 2002. *, ''Remarkable Physicists: From Galileo to Yukawa'', Cambridge University Press, 2004. *, '' Asperger's Syndrome And High Achievement: Some Very Remarkable People'', Jessica Kingsley Pub, 2005. *, ''The Mind of the Mathematician'', JHU Press, 2007. *, ''Driven to Innovate: A Century of Jewish Mathematicians and Physicists'', Peter Lang Oxford, 2009. *, ''Remarkable Biologists: From Ray to Hamilton'', Cambridge University Press, 2009. *, ''Remarkable Engineers: From Riquet to Shannon'', Cambridge University Press, 2010.

References

External links

* * 1928 births Living people English mathematicians Fellows of New College, Oxford Fellows of St John's College, Oxford Fellows of the Royal Society British historians of mathematics Historians of science Savilian Professors of Geometry Place of birth missing (living people) Topologists {{UK-mathematician-stub

Biography

Books

See also

References

External links