Louis Napoleon George Filon, FRS (22 November 1875 – 29 December 1937) was an English

applied 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 One ...

, famous for his research on classical mechanics and particularly the theory of elasticity and the mechanics of continuous media. He also developed a method for the

numerical quadrature In analysis, numerical integration comprises a broad family of algorithms for calculating the numerical value of a definite integral, and by extension, the term is also sometimes used to describe the numerical solution of differential equations ...

of oscillatory integrals, now known as ''Filon quadrature''. He was

Vice Chancellor A chancellor is a leader of a college or university, usually either the executive or ceremonial head of the university or of a university campus within a university system. In most Commonwealth and former Commonwealth nations, the chancellor is ...

of the

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree ...

from 1933 to 1935.

Early life

He was born at

Saint-Cloud Saint-Cloud () is a commune in the western suburbs of Paris, France, from the centre of Paris. Like other communes of Hauts-de-Seine such as Marnes-la-Coquette, Neuilly-sur-Seine and Vaucresson, Saint-Cloud is one of France's wealthiest towns ...

, near Paris, as the only child of Augustin Filon, the French ''littérateur'' who was appointed as the official tutor to the Prince Imperial. Accompanying the Prince Imperial in his exile, the Filon family came to England in 1878 and lived at

Margate Margate is a seaside resort, seaside town on the north coast of Kent in south-east England. The town is estimated to be 1.5 miles long, north-east of Canterbury and includes Cliftonville, Garlinge, Palm Bay, UK, Palm Bay and Westbrook, Kent, ...

. He was educated at Herne House School in Margate.

Career

In 1894 Filon became a student at

University College, London , mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £143 million (2020) , budget = � ...

and received his BA in 1896 with a gold medal in

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

. He was appointed in the college as Demonstrator in Applied Mathematics under the supervision of

Karl Pearson Karl Pearson (; born Carl Pearson; 27 March 1857 – 27 April 1936) was an English mathematician and biostatistician. He has been credited with establishing the discipline of mathematical statistics. He founded the world's first university st ...

. He spotted a mistake in Pearson's lectures and the correction was incorporated into a joint publication with Pearson. This important paper was Filon's only publication in statistics. In 1898 Filon went to

King's College, Cambridge King's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Formally The King's College of Our Lady and Saint Nicholas in Cambridge, the college lies beside the River Cam and faces out onto King's Parade in the centre of the city ...

on an 1851 Exhibition Research Fellowship for advanced study. In July 1902 he earned a doctorate in mixed mathematics from University College, London, and in 1903 he became there a lecturer in pure mathematics under M J M Hill. In 1910 Filon was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. In 1912, upon Pearson's retirement, Filon was appointed to the Goldsmid Chair of Applied Mathematics and Mechanics at University College, London. Except for an academic leave during his military service in the First World War, he occupied this chair until his death in 1937. Filon was also Director of the

University of London Observatory UCL Observatory (called the University of London Observatory until 2015) at Mill Hill in London is an astronomical teaching observatory. It is part of the Department of Physics and Astronomy at University College London. History The Observator ...

from 1929 to 1937.Notices: Fellows – Filon, Louis Napoleon George, ''Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society'' 98:247-9
/ref> He was the author of over 50 papers and three books (one as co-author with E. G. Coker). He was a member of the University of London Senate (1920) and the Court, Dean of the Faculty of Science, Chairman of the Academic Council (1924–33) and Vice-Chancellor (1933–35). During his term of office, the

foundation stone The cornerstone (or foundation stone or setting stone) is the first stone set in the construction of a masonry foundation. All other stones will be set in reference to this stone, thus determining the position of the entire structure. Over time ...

was laid for the university's

Bloomsbury Bloomsbury is a district in the West End of London. It is considered a fashionable residential area, and is the location of numerous cultural, intellectual, and educational institutions. Bloomsbury is home of the British Museum, the largest mus ...

headquarters.

Personal life

In 1904 he married Anne, eldest daughter of Professor Philippe Godet, of the

University of Neuchâtel The University of Neuchâtel (UniNE) is a French-speaking university based in Neuchâtel, Switzerland. The university has four faculties (schools) and more than a dozen institutes, including arts and human sciences, natural sciences, law and eco ...

and had a son and two daughters. He died 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 ...

during the

Croydon typhoid outbreak of 1937 The Croydon typhoid outbreak of 1937, also known as the Croydon epidemic of typhoid fever, was an outbreak of typhoid fever in Croydon, Surrey, now part of London, in 1937. It resulted in 341 cases of typhoid (43 fatal), and it caused considerable ...

Works

* ''Treatise on Photoelasticity'' (1931) – with E G Coker * ''A Manual of Photoelasticity for Engineers'' (1936)

References

External links