John Mackintosh Howie (23 May 1936 – 26 December 2011) was a Scottish

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 prominent semigroup theorist.

Biography

Howie was educated at

Robert Gordon's College Robert Gordon's College is a co-educational Independent school (UK) for day pupils in Aberdeen, Scotland. The school caters for pupils from Nursery through to S6. History Robert Gordon, an Aberdeen merchant, made his fortune in 18th century ...

Aberdeen Aberdeen (; sco, Aiberdeen ; gd, Obar Dheathain ; la, Aberdonia) is a city in North East Scotland, and is the third most populous city in the country. Aberdeen is one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas (as Aberdeen City), and ...

, the

University of Aberdeen The University of Aberdeen ( sco, University o' 'Aiberdeen; abbreviated as ''Aberd.'' in List of post-nominal letters (United Kingdom), post-nominals; gd, Oilthigh Obar Dheathain) is a public university, public research university in Aberdeen, Sc ...

and

Balliol College, Oxford Balliol College () is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. One of Oxford's oldest colleges, it was founded around 1263 by John I de Balliol, a landowner from Barnard Castle in County Durham, who provided the f ...

, where he wrote a Ph.D. thesis under the direction of

Graham Higman Graham Higman FRS (19 January 1917 – 8 April 2008) was a prominent English mathematician known for his contributions to group theory. Biography Higman was born in Louth, Lincolnshire, and attended Sutton High School, Plymouth, winning a ...

. In 1966

University of Stirling The University of Stirling (, gd, Oilthigh Shruighlea (abbreviated as Stir or Shruiglea, in post-nominals) is a public university in Stirling, Scotland, founded by royal charter in 1967. It is located in the Central Belt of Scotland, built w ...

was established with Walter D. Munn ( fr) at head of the department of mathematics. Munn recruited Howie to teach there. According to Christopher Hollings, :...a 'British school' of semigroup theory cannot be said to have taken off properly until the mid-1960s when John M. Howie completed an Oxford DPhil in semigroup theory (partly under Preston's influence) and Munn began to supervise research students in semigroups (most notably, Norman R. Reilly).. He won the

Keith Prize The Keith Medal was a prize awarded by the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland's national academy, for a scientific paper published in the society's scientific journals, preference being given to a paper containing a discovery, either in mathema ...

of the

Royal Society of Edinburgh The Royal Society of Edinburgh is Scotland's national academy of science and letters. It is a registered charity that operates on a wholly independent and non-partisan basis and provides public benefit throughout Scotland. It was established i ...

, 1979–81. He was

Regius Professor of Mathematics The Regius Professorship of Mathematics is the name given to three chair (academic), chairs in mathematics at British universities, one at the University of St Andrews, founded by Charles II of England, Charles II in 1668, the second one at the Uni ...

at the

University of St Andrews (Aien aristeuein) , motto_lang = grc , mottoeng = Ever to ExcelorEver to be the Best , established = , type = Public research university Ancient university , endowment ...

from 1970–1997. No successor to this chair was named until 2015 when Igor Rivin was appointed. Howie was charged with reviewing universal, comprehensive

secondary education Secondary education or post-primary education covers two phases on the International Standard Classification of Education scale. Level 2 or lower secondary education (less commonly junior secondary education) is considered the second and final pha ...

in Scotland, which was viewed as failing its students. Impressed with

education in Denmark Education in Denmark is compulsory ( da, undervisningspligt) for children below the age of 15 or 16, even though it is not compulsory to attend ''Folkeskole'' ("public school"). The school years up to the age of fifteen/sixteen are known as ''Folk ...

, his committee proposed a

tracking Tracking may refer to: Science and technology Computing * Tracking, in computer graphics, in match moving (insertion of graphics into footage) * Tracking, composing music with music tracker software * Eye tracking, measuring the position of t ...

scheme to improve academic outcomes, and communicated recommendations in ''Upper Secondary Education in Scotland'' (1992).

Public appointments

* Mathematics Panel,

Scottish Examination Board The Scottish Examination Board (SEB), formerly known as the Scottish Certificate of Education Examination Board (SCEEB), was the Examination board, academic examination board for Scottish schools from 1965 to 1997. History From their introductio ...

1967–73; Convener from 1970 * Chairman,

Scottish Central Committee for Mathematics Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

1975–81 * President,

Edinburgh Mathematical Society The Edinburgh Mathematical Society is a mathematical society for academics in Scotland. History The Society was founded in 1883 by a group of Edinburgh school teachers and academics, on the initiative of Alexander Yule Fraser FRSE and Andrew Je ...

1973–74 *

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 ...

: ** Council 1982-88, 1989–92 ** Vice-president 1986–88, 1990–92 ** Chairman of Education Committee 1985–89 ** Chairman of Public Affairs Committee 1990–92 * Member of

Dunning Committee Dunning may refer to: Places * Dunning, Chicago, Illinois, United States, a community area * Dunning, Nebraska, United States, a village * Dunning Creek, Pennsylvania * Dunning, Perth and Kinross, Scotland, a small village ** Dunning railway stat ...

1975–77 * Chairman of Governors,

Dundee College of Education Dundee (; sco, Dundee; gd, Dùn Dè or ) is Scotland's fourth-largest city and the 51st-most-populous built-up area in the United Kingdom. The mid-year population estimate for 2016 was , giving Dundee a population density of 2,478/km2 or ...

1983–87 * Governor,

Northern College of Education Northern may refer to the following: Geography * North, a point in direction * Northern Europe, the northern part or region of Europe * Northern Highland, a region of Wisconsin, United States * Northern Province, Sri Lanka * Northern Range, a r ...

1987–2001 * Chairman,

Scottish Mathematical Council Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

1987–93 * Chairman, Committee to review fifth and sixth years ( Howie Committee) 1990-92 * Council,

1992–1995 * Chairman, Steering Committee,

International Centre for Mathematical Sciences The International Centre for Mathematical Sciences (ICMS) is a mathematical research centre based in Edinburgh. According to its website, the centre is "designed to bring together mathematicians and practitioners in science, industry and commerce ...

1991-97.

Books

* 1976: ''An Introduction to Semigroup Theory'',

Academic Press Academic Press (AP) is an academic book publisher founded in 1941. It was acquired by Harcourt, Brace & World in 1969. Reed Elsevier bought Harcourt in 2000, and Academic Press is now an imprint of Elsevier. Academic Press publishes reference ...

* 1991: ''Automata and Languages'',

Clarendon Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...

* 1992: ''Upper Secondary Education in Scotland'' (Howie Report) * 1995: ''Fundamentals of Semigroup Theory'', Clarendon Press * 2001: ''Real Analysis'',

Springer books Springer Science+Business Media, commonly known as Springer, is a German multinational publishing company of books, e-books and peer-reviewed journals in science, humanities, technical and medical (STM) publishing. Originally founded in 1842 in ...

* 2003: ''Complex Analysis'', Springer books * 2006: ''Fields and Galois Theory'', Springer books

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Howie, John Mackintosh 1936 births 2011 deaths Scientists from Aberdeen People educated at Robert Gordon's College Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Alumni of the University of Aberdeen Alumni of Balliol College, Oxford Academics of the University of St Andrews Commanders of the Order of the British Empire 20th-century Scottish mathematicians British textbook writers Sir Edmund Whittaker Memorial Prize winners