Ian Stewart (mathematician)
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Ian Nicholas Stewart (born 24 September 1945) is a British mathematician and a
popular-science ''Popular Science'' (also known as ''PopSci'') is an American digital magazine carrying popular science content, which refers to articles for the general reader on science and technology subjects. ''Popular Science'' has won over 58 awards, incl ...
and science-fiction writer. He is
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 ...
Professor of Mathematics at the
University of Warwick The University of Warwick ( ; abbreviated as ''Warw.'' in post-nominal letters) is a public research university on the outskirts of Coventry between the West Midlands (county), West Midlands and Warwickshire, England. The university was founded i ...
, England.


Education and early life

Stewart was born in 1945 in
Folkestone Folkestone ( ) is a port town on the English Channel, in Kent, south-east England. The town lies on the southern edge of the North Downs at a valley between two cliffs. It was an important harbour and shipping port for most of the 19th and 20t ...
, England. While in the
sixth form In the education systems of England, Northern Ireland, Wales, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago and some other Commonwealth countries, sixth form represents the final two years of secondary education, ages 16 to 18. Pupils typically prepare for A-l ...
at
Harvey Grammar School The Harvey Grammar School is located in Folkestone, Kent, England. It is a grammar school with academy status founded by the family of William Harvey in 1674. Admissions A selective school for boys only, the school has around 900 on its roll. ...
in Folkestone he came to the attention of the mathematics teacher. The teacher had Stewart sit mock
A-level The A-Level (Advanced Level) is a subject-based qualification conferred as part of the General Certificate of Education, as well as a school leaving qualification offered by the educational bodies in the United Kingdom and the educational aut ...
examinations without any preparation along with the upper-sixth students; Stewart was placed first in the examination. He was awarded a scholarship to study at the
University of Cambridge , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...
as an undergraduate student of
Churchill College, Cambridge Churchill College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. It has a primary focus on science, engineering and technology, but still retains a strong interest in the arts and humanities. In 1958, a trust was establish ...
, where he studied the
Mathematical Tripos The Mathematical Tripos is the mathematics course that is taught in the Faculty of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge. It is the oldest Tripos examined at the University. Origin In its classical nineteenth-century form, the tripos was ...
and obtained a first-class
Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...
degree in mathematics in 1966. Stewart then went to the
University of Warwick The University of Warwick ( ; abbreviated as ''Warw.'' in post-nominal letters) is a public research university on the outskirts of Coventry between the West Midlands (county), West Midlands and Warwickshire, England. The university was founded i ...
where his PhD on
Lie algebra In mathematics, a Lie algebra (pronounced ) is a vector space \mathfrak g together with an Binary operation, operation called the Lie bracket, an Alternating multilinear map, alternating bilinear map \mathfrak g \times \mathfrak g \rightarrow ...
s was supervised by
Brian Hartley Brian Hartley (15 May 1939 – 8 October 1994) was a British mathematician specialising in group theory. Education Hartley's PhD thesis was completed in 1964 at the University of Cambridge under Philip Hall's supervision. Career and research ...
and completed in 1969.


Career and research

After his PhD, Stewart was offered an academic position at Warwick. He is well known for his popular expositions of mathematics and his contributions to catastrophe theory. While at Warwick, Stewart edited the mathematical magazine ''
Manifold In mathematics, a manifold is a topological space that locally resembles Euclidean space near each point. More precisely, an n-dimensional manifold, or ''n-manifold'' for short, is a topological space with the property that each point has a n ...
''. He also wrote a column called "Mathematical Recreations" for ''
Scientific American ''Scientific American'', informally abbreviated ''SciAm'' or sometimes ''SA'', is an American popular science magazine. Many famous scientists, including Albert Einstein and Nikola Tesla, have contributed articles to it. In print since 1845, it i ...
'' magazine from 1991 to 2001. This followed the work of past columnists like
Martin Gardner Martin Gardner (October 21, 1914May 22, 2010) was an American popular mathematics and popular science writer with interests also encompassing scientific skepticism, micromagic, philosophy, religion, and literatureespecially the writings of Lewis ...
, Douglas Hofstadter, and
A. K. Dewdney Alexander Keewatin Dewdney (born August 5, 1941) is a Canadian mathematician, computer scientist, author, filmmaker, and conspiracy theorist. Dewdney is the son of Canadian artist and author Selwyn Dewdney, and brother of poet Christopher Dewdney. ...
. Altogether, he wrote 96 columns for ''Scientific American'', which were later reprinted in the books "Math Hysteria", "How to Cut a Cake: And Other Mathematical Conundrums" and "Cows in the Maze". Stewart has held visiting academic positions in Germany (1974), New Zealand (1976), and the US (
University of Connecticut The University of Connecticut (UConn) is a public land-grant research university in Storrs, Connecticut, a village in the town of Mansfield. The primary 4,400-acre (17.8 km2) campus is in Storrs, approximately a half hour's drive from H ...
1977–78,
University of Houston The University of Houston (UH) is a Public university, public research university in Houston, Texas. Founded in 1927, UH is a member of the University of Houston System and the List of universities in Texas by enrollment, university in Texas ...
1983–84). Stewart has published more than 140
scientific papers : ''For a broader class of literature, see Academic publishing.'' Scientific literature comprises scholarly publications that report original empirical and theoretical work in the natural and social sciences. Within an academic field, scient ...
, including a series of influential papers co-authored with Jim Collins o
coupled oscillators and the symmetry of animal gaits
Stewart has collaborated with Jack Cohen and
Terry Pratchett Sir Terence David John Pratchett (28 April 1948 – 12 March 2015) was an English humourist, satirist, and author of fantasy novels, especially comical works. He is best known for his '' Discworld'' series of 41 novels. Pratchett's first no ...
on four
popular science ''Popular Science'' (also known as ''PopSci'') is an American digital magazine carrying popular science content, which refers to articles for the general reader on science and technology subjects. ''Popular Science'' has won over 58 awards, incl ...
books based on Pratchett's ''
Discworld ''Discworld'' is a comic fantasy"Humorous Fantasy" in David Pringle, ed., ''The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Fantasy'' (pp.31-33). London, Carlton,2006. book series written by the English author Terry Pratchett, set on the Discworld, a flat ...
''. In 1999
Terry Pratchett Sir Terence David John Pratchett (28 April 1948 – 12 March 2015) was an English humourist, satirist, and author of fantasy novels, especially comical works. He is best known for his '' Discworld'' series of 41 novels. Pratchett's first no ...
made both Jack Cohen and Professor Ian Stewart "Honorary Wizards of the Unseen University" at the same ceremony at which the University of Warwick gave Terry Pratchett an honorary degree. In March 2014 Ian Stewart's iPad app
Incredible Numbers by Professor Ian Stewart
launched in the App Store. The app was produced in partnership with
Profile Books Profile Books is a British independent book publishing firm founded in 1996. It publishes non-fiction subjects including history, biography, memoir, politics, current affairs, travel and popular science. Profile Books is distributed in the UK ...
and
Touch Press Touchpress was an acclaimed app developer and publisher based in Central London. The company specialised in creating in-depth premium apps on educational subjects including the Periodic Table, Beethoven, the Solar System, T.S. Eliot, Shakespea ...
.


Mathematics and popular science

*''
Manifold In mathematics, a manifold is a topological space that locally resembles Euclidean space near each point. More precisely, an n-dimensional manifold, or ''n-manifold'' for short, is a topological space with the property that each point has a n ...
'', mathematical magazine published at the
University of Warwick The University of Warwick ( ; abbreviated as ''Warw.'' in post-nominal letters) is a public research university on the outskirts of Coventry between the West Midlands (county), West Midlands and Warwickshire, England. The university was founded i ...
(1960s) * ''Nut-crackers: Puzzles and Games to Boggle the Mind'' (Piccolo Books) with John Jaworski, 1971. *''
Concepts of Modern Mathematics ''Concepts of Modern Mathematics'' is a book by mathematician and science popularizer Ian Stewart about then-recent developments in mathematics. It was originally published by Penguin Books in 1975, updated in 1981, and reprinted by Dover publ ...
'' (1975) *''Oh! Catastrophe'' (1982, in French) *'' Does God Play Dice? The New Mathematics of Chaos'' (1989) *''Game, Set and Math'' (1991) *''Fearful Symmetry'' (1992) *''Another Fine Math You've Got Me Into'' (1992) *'' The Collapse of Chaos: Discovering Simplicity in a Complex World'', with Jack Cohen (1995) *''Nature's Numbers: The Unreal Reality of Mathematics'' (1995) *'' What is Mathematics?'' – originally by
Richard Courant Richard Courant (January 8, 1888 – January 27, 1972) was a German American mathematician. He is best known by the general public for the book '' What is Mathematics?'', co-written with Herbert Robbins. His research focused on the areas of real ...
and
Herbert Robbins Herbert Ellis Robbins (January 12, 1915 – February 12, 2001) was an American mathematician and statistician. He did research in topology, measure theory, statistics, and a variety of other fields. He was the co-author, with Richard Co ...
, second edition revised by Ian Stewart (1996) *'' From Here to Infinity'' (1996), originally published as ''The Problems of Mathematics'' (1987) *''
Figments of Reality ''Figments of Reality: The Evolution of the Curious Mind'' (1997) is a book about the evolution of the intelligent and conscious human mind by biologist Jack Cohen and mathematician Ian Stewart. Overview In this book Cohen and Stewart give th ...
'', with Jack Cohen (1997) *''The Magical Maze: Seeing the World Through Mathematical Eyes'' (1998) *''Life's Other Secret'' (1998) *''What Shape is a Snowflake?'' (2001) *''
Flatterland ''Flatterland'' is a 2001 book written by mathematician and science popularizer Ian Stewart about non-Euclidean geometry. It was written as a sequel to ''Flatland'', an 1884 novel that discussed different dimensions. Plot summary Almost 100 ...
'' (2001) (See
Flatland ''Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions'' is a satirical novella by the English schoolmaster Edwin Abbott Abbott, first published in 1884 by Seeley & Co. of London. Written pseudonymously by "A Square", the book used the fictional two-dim ...
) *''The Annotated
Flatland ''Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions'' is a satirical novella by the English schoolmaster Edwin Abbott Abbott, first published in 1884 by Seeley & Co. of London. Written pseudonymously by "A Square", the book used the fictional two-dim ...
'' (2002) *'' Evolving the Alien: The Science of Extraterrestrial Life'', with Jack Cohen (2002). Second edition published as ''What Does a Martian Look Like? The Science of Extraterrestrial Life''. *''Math Hysteria'' (2004) *''The Mayor of Uglyville's Dilemma'' (2005) *''
Letters to a Young Mathematician ''Letters to a Young Mathematician'' () is a 2006 book by Ian Stewart (mathematician), Ian Stewart, and is part of Basic Books' ''Art of Mentoring'' series. Stewart mentions in the preface that he considers this book an update to G.H. Har ...
'' (2006) *''How to Cut a Cake: And Other Mathematical Conundrums'' (2006) *'' Why Beauty Is Truth: A History of Symmetry'' (2007) *''Taming the infinite: The story of Mathematics from the first numbers to chaos theory'' (2008) *''Professor Stewart's Cabinet of Mathematical Curiosities'' (2008) *''Professor Stewart's Hoard of Mathematical Treasures: Another Drawer from the Cabinet of Curiosities'' (2009) *''Cows in the Maze: And Other Mathematical Explorations'' (2010) *''
The Mathematics of Life ''The Mathematics of Life'' is a 2011 popular science book by mathematician Ian Stewart, on the increasing role of mathematics in biology. Overview Stewart discusses the mathematics behind such topics as population growth, speciation, brain ...
'' (2011) *'' In Pursuit of the Unknown: 17 Equations That Changed the World'' (2012) *''Symmetry: A Very Short Introduction'' (2013)
''Visions of Infinity: The Great Mathematical Problems''
(2013)
''Professor Stewart's Casebook of Mathematical Mysteries''
(2014) *''Incredible Numbers'' by Professor Ian Stewart (
iPad The iPad is a brand of iOS and iPadOS-based tablet computers that are developed by Apple Inc. The iPad was conceived before the related iPhone but the iPhone was developed and released first. Speculation about the development, operating s ...
app) (2014) *''Calculating the Cosmos: How Mathematics Unveils the Universe'' (2016) *''Infinity: A Very Short Introduction'' (2017), Oxford University Press. *'' Significant Figures: The Lives and Work of Great Mathematicians'' (2017) *''Do Dice Play God? The Mathematics of Uncertainty'' (2019), Profile Books. *''What's the use ?: How mathematics shapes everyday life?'' (2021), Basic Books.


Computer programming

*''Easy Programming for the ZX Spectrum'' (1982), with Robin Jones, Shiva Publishing Ltd., *''Computer Puzzles For Spectrum & ZX81'' (1982), with Robin Jones, Shiva Publishing Ltd., *''Timex Sinclair 1000: Programs, Games, and Graphics'', with Robin Jones, Birkhäuser, *''Spectrum Machine Code'' (1983), with Robin Jones, Shiva Publishing Ltd., *''Further Programming for the ZX Spectrum'' (1983), with Robin Jones, Shiva Publishing Ltd., *''Gateway to Computing with the ZX Spectrum'' (1984), Shiva Publishing Ltd.,


''Science of Discworld'' series

*''
The Science of Discworld ''The Science of Discworld'' is a 1999 book by novelist Terry Pratchett and popular science writers (and University of Warwick science researchers) Ian Stewart and Jack Cohen. Three sequels, '' The Science of Discworld II: The Globe'', '' The S ...
'', with Jack Cohen and
Terry Pratchett Sir Terence David John Pratchett (28 April 1948 – 12 March 2015) was an English humourist, satirist, and author of fantasy novels, especially comical works. He is best known for his '' Discworld'' series of 41 novels. Pratchett's first no ...
*'' The Science of Discworld II: The Globe'', with Jack Cohen and
Terry Pratchett Sir Terence David John Pratchett (28 April 1948 – 12 March 2015) was an English humourist, satirist, and author of fantasy novels, especially comical works. He is best known for his '' Discworld'' series of 41 novels. Pratchett's first no ...
*'' The Science of Discworld III: Darwin's Watch'', with Jack Cohen and
Terry Pratchett Sir Terence David John Pratchett (28 April 1948 – 12 March 2015) was an English humourist, satirist, and author of fantasy novels, especially comical works. He is best known for his '' Discworld'' series of 41 novels. Pratchett's first no ...
*'' The Science of Discworld IV: Judgement Day'', with Jack Cohen and
Terry Pratchett Sir Terence David John Pratchett (28 April 1948 – 12 March 2015) was an English humourist, satirist, and author of fantasy novels, especially comical works. He is best known for his '' Discworld'' series of 41 novels. Pratchett's first no ...


Textbooks

*''Catastrophe Theory and its Applications'', with Tim Poston, Pitman, 1978. . *''Complex Analysis: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Plane'', I. Stewart, D Tall. 1983 *''Algebraic number theory and Fermat's last theorem'', 3rd Edition, I. Stewart, D Tall. A. K. Peters (2002) *''Galois Theory'', 3rd Edition, Chapman and Hall (2000)
''Galois Theory'' Errata
*''The Foundations of Mathematics'', 2nd Edition, I. Stewart, D Tall. (2015)


Science fiction

*'' Wheelers'', with Jack Cohen (fiction) *''
Heaven Heaven or the heavens, is a common religious cosmological or transcendent supernatural place where beings such as deities, angels, souls, saints, or venerated ancestors are said to originate, be enthroned, or reside. According to the belie ...
'', with Jack Cohen, , Aspect, May 2004 (fiction)


Science and mathematics

* * * * * * * *


Awards and honours

In 1995 Stewart received the Michael Faraday Medal and in 1997 he gave the Royal Institution Christmas Lecture on ''The Magical Maze''. He was elected as 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 2001. Stewart was the first recipient in 2008 of the
Christopher Zeeman Sir Erik Christopher Zeeman FRS (4 February 1925 – 13 February 2016), was a British mathematician, known for his work in geometric topology and singularity theory. Overview Zeeman's main contributions to mathematics were in topology, partic ...
Medal, awarded jointly by the London Mathematical Society (LMS) and the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications (IMA) for his work on promoting mathematics.


Personal life

Stewart married Avril, in 1970. They met at a party at a house that Avril was renting while she trained as a nurse. They have two sons. He lists his recreations as science fiction, painting, guitar, keeping fish, geology, Egyptology and snorkelling.


References


External links

*
personal webpageMichael Faraday prize winners 2004–1986Directory of Fellows of the Royal Society: Ian StewartProf Ian Stewart
at Debrett's ''People of Today''
What does a Martian look like? Jack Cohen and Ian Stewart set out to find the answersIan Stewart on space exploration by NASAIan Stewart on Minesweeper
one of th
Millennium mathematics problemsPress release about Terry Pratchett "Wizard Making" of Jack Cohen and Ian Stewart at the University of WarwickInterview with Ian Stewart on the Science of Discworld seriesAudio Interview with Ian Stewart on April 25, 2007 from WINA's Charlottesville Right NowPodcast series with Ian Stewart on the history of symmetry
initially published in: Scientific American, Feb 1993
"The Joy of Mathematics – A conversation with Ian Stewart"
''Ideas Roadshow'', 2013
"In conversation with Ian Stewart"
''Chalkdust Magazine'', 2016 {{DEFAULTSORT:Stewart, Ian 20th-century English mathematicians 21st-century English mathematicians People from Folkestone English science writers Fellows of the Royal Society Alumni of the University of Warwick Alumni of Churchill College, Cambridge 1945 births Living people Academics of the University of Warwick Professors of Gresham College Mathematics popularizers British textbook writers Recreational mathematicians