James Gardner Oldroyd (25 April 1921 – 22 November 1982''The Times'' November 25, 1982 page 26 "Deaths") was a

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

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 ...

and noted rheologist. He formulated the Oldroyd-B model to describe the

viscoelastic In materials science and continuum mechanics, viscoelasticity is the property of materials that exhibit both viscous and elastic characteristics when undergoing deformation. Viscous materials, like water, resist shear flow and strain linearly ...

behaviour of

non-Newtonian fluid A non-Newtonian fluid is a fluid that does not follow Newton's law of viscosity, i.e., constant viscosity independent of stress. In non-Newtonian fluids, viscosity can change when under force to either more liquid or more solid. Ketchup, for ex ...

Life

Oldroyd was born in 1921 and educated at

Bradford Grammar School Bradford Grammar School (BGS) is a co-educational independent day school located in Frizinghall, Bradford, West Yorkshire, England. Entrance is by examination, except for the sixth form, where admission is based on GCSE results. The school ...

, and

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any college at either Cambridge or Oxford. ...

. On graduation, during the

Second World War 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 opposi ...

, he worked for the Ministry of Supply. After the war he joined the Research Laboratory of

Courtaulds Courtaulds was a United Kingdom-based manufacturer of fabric, clothing, artificial fibres, and chemicals. It was established in 1794 and became the world's leading man-made fibre production company before being broken up in 1990 into Courtaulds ...

. In 1946 he married Marged Katryn Evans.C. Petrie (1983) ''Rheologica Acta'' vol 22 no 1 pp 1-3 "Obituary" In 1953 he became professor of mathematics at the

University of Wales, Swansea Swansea University ( cy, Prifysgol Abertawe) is a public university, public research university located in Swansea, Wales, United Kingdom. It was chartered as University College of Swansea in 1920, as the fourth college of the University of Wales. ...

until 1965 and head of the Applied Mathematics department from 1957. In 1965 he moved to

Liverpool University , mottoeng = These days of peace foster learning , established = 1881 – University College Liverpool1884 – affiliated to the federal Victoria Universityhttp://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukla/2004/4 University of Manchester Act 200 ...

, becoming head of the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics in 1973 until his death.''The Times'' December 7, 1982 page 14, "Professor J. G. Oldroyd" He died 22 November 1982, and was survived by his wife Katryn and three sons.

Work

In 1950 he published a paper "On the Formulation of Rheological Equations of State" which has been described as "probably the most important single paper in theoretical rheology" as it established the basic requirements for mathematical models of rheology. For this and other major papers he received international recognition, including the Gold Medal of the

British Society of Rheology A British society for those interested in all aspects of rheology. Formed in 1940 by G. W. Scott Blair (Secretary), V. G. W. Harrison, and H. R. Lang as the British Rheologist's Club and changed to its present name in 1950. The inaugural meeting ...

, and a tribute issue of its Bulletin on his sixtieth birthday.

References

1921 births 1982 deaths 20th-century British mathematicians Rheologists Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge {{UK-mathematician-stub