The Mathematical Association is a professional society concerned with

mathematics education In contemporary education, mathematics education, known in Europe as the didactics or pedagogy of mathematics – is the practice of teaching, learning and carrying out scholarly research into the transfer of mathematical knowledge. Although rese ...

in the UK.

History

It was founded in 1871 as the Association for the Improvement of Geometrical Teaching and renamed to the Mathematical Association in 1894. It was the first teachers' subject organisation formed in England. In March 1927, it held a three-day meeting in

Grantham Grantham () is a market and industrial town in the South Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England, situated on the banks of the River Witham and bounded to the west by the A1 road. It lies some 23 miles (37 km) south of the Lincoln and ...

to commemorate the bicentenary of the death of Sir

Isaac Newton Sir Isaac Newton (25 December 1642 – 20 March 1726/27) was an English mathematician, physicist, astronomer, alchemist, theologian, and author (described in his time as a "natural philosopher"), widely recognised as one of the grea ...

, attended by Sir

J. J. Thomson Sir Joseph John Thomson (18 December 1856 – 30 August 1940) was a British physicist and Nobel Laureate in Physics, credited with the discovery of the electron, the first subatomic particle to be discovered. In 1897, Thomson showed that ...

(discoverer of the electron), Sir

Frank Watson Dyson Sir Frank Watson Dyson, KBE, FRS, FRSE (8 January 1868 – 25 May 1939) was an English astronomer and the ninth Astronomer Royal who is remembered today largely for introducing time signals ("pips") from Greenwich, England, and for the role ...

– the

Astronomer Royal Astronomer Royal is a senior post in the Royal Households of the United Kingdom. There are two officers, the senior being the Astronomer Royal dating from 22 June 1675; the junior is the Astronomer Royal for Scotland dating from 1834. The post ...

, Sir

Horace Lamb Sir Horace Lamb (27 November 1849 – 4 December 1934)R. B. Potts,, ''Australian Dictionary of Biography'', Volume 5, MUP, 1974, pp 54–55. Retrieved 5 Sep 2009 was a British applied mathematician and author of several influential texts on ...

, and

G. H. Hardy Godfrey Harold Hardy (7 February 1877 – 1 December 1947) was an English mathematician, known for his achievements in number theory and mathematical analysis. In biology, he is known for the Hardy–Weinberg principle, a basic principle of pop ...

. In 1951,

Mary Cartwright Dame Mary Lucy Cartwright, (17 December 1900 – 3 April 1998) was a British mathematician. She was one of the pioneers of what would later become known as chaos theory. Along with J. E. Littlewood, Cartwright saw many solutions to a problem ...

became the first female president of the Mathematical Association. In the 1960s, when comprehensive education was being introduced, the Association was in favour of the

11-plus The eleven-plus (11+) is a Test (assessment), standardized examination administered to some students in England and Northern Ireland in their last year of primary education, which governs admission to grammar schools and other secondary schools ...

system. For maths teachers training at university, a teaching award that was examined was the Diploma of the Mathematical Association, later known as the Diploma in Mathematical Education of the Mathematical Association.

Function

It exists to "bring about improvements in the teaching of mathematics and its applications, and to provide a means of communication among students and teachers of mathematics". Since 1894 it has published ''

The Mathematical Gazette ''The Mathematical Gazette'' is an academic journal of mathematics education, published three times yearly, that publishes "articles about the teaching and learning of mathematics with a focus on the 15–20 age range and expositions of attractive ...

''. It is one of the participating bodies in the quadrennial British Congress of Mathematics Education, organised by the

Joint Mathematical Council The Joint Mathematical Council (JMC) of the United Kingdom was formed in 1963 to 'provide co-ordination between the Constituent Societies and generally to promote the advancement of mathematics and the improvement of the mathematics education, teach ...

, and it holds its annual general meeting as part of the Congress.

Structure

It is based in the south-east of Leicester on ''London Road'' ( A6), just south of the Charles Frears campus of

De Montfort University De Montfort University Leicester (DMU) is a public university in the city of Leicester, England. It was established in accordance with the Further and Higher Education Act in 1992 as a degree awarding body. The name De Montfort University was tak ...

. Aside from the Council, it has seven other specialist committees.

Regions

Its branches are sometimes shared with the

Association of Teachers of Mathematics The Association of Teachers of Mathematics (ATM) was established by Caleb Gattegno in 1950 to encourage the development of mathematics education to be more closely related to the needs of the learner. ATM is a membership organisation representing ...

(ATM): * Birmingham * Cambridge * East Midlands * Exeter * Gloucester * Liverpool * London * Greater Manchester * Meridian * Stoke and Staffordshire * Sheffield * Sussex * Yorkshire

Past presidents

Past presidents of The Association for the Improvement of Geometrical Teaching included: *1871

Thomas Archer Hirst Thomas Archer Hirst FRS (22 April 1830 – 16 February 1892) was a 19th-century English mathematician, specialising in geometry. He was awarded the Royal Society's Royal Medal in 1883. Life Thomas Hirst was born in Heckmondwike, Yorkshire, E ...

*1878 R B Hayward MA, FRS *1889 Professor G M Minchin MA, FRS *1891 James Joseph Sylvester *1892 The Reverend C Taylor DD *1893 R Wormell MA, DSc *1895

Joseph Larmor Sir Joseph Larmor (11 July 1857 – 19 May 1942) was an Irish and British physicist and mathematician who made breakthroughs in the understanding of electricity, dynamics, thermodynamics, and the electron theory of matter. His most influent ...

Past presidents of The Mathematical Association have included: *1897

Alfred Lodge Professor Alfred Lodge MA (1854 – 1 December 1937), was an English mathematician, author, and the first president of The Mathematical Association. Alfred Lodge was born in 1854 at Penkhull, Staffordshire, one of nine children to Oliver Lodg ...

*1899–1900

Robert Stawell Ball Sir Robert Stawell Ball (1 July 1840 – 25 November 1913) was an Irish astronomer who founded the screw theory. He was Royal Astronomer of Ireland at Dunsink Observatory. Life He was the son of naturalist Robert Ball, and Amelia Gresley Hel ...

*1901

John Fletcher Moulton, Baron Moulton John Fletcher Moulton, Baron Moulton, (18 November 1844 – 9 March 1921) was an English mathematician, barrister, judge and Liberal politician. He was a Cambridge Apostle. Early life Moulton was born in Madeley, Shropshire, England, a ...

*1903 Andrew Forsyth *1905

George Ballard Mathews 250px George Ballard Mathews, FRS (23 February 1861 – 19 March 1922) was an English mathematician. He was born in London. He studied at the Ludlow Grammar School which had instruction in Hebrew and Sanscrit as well as in Greek and Latin. He ...

*1907

George H. Bryan George Hartley Bryan FRS (1 March 1864 – 13 October 1928) was an English applied mathematician who was an authority on thermodynamics and aeronautics. He was born in Cambridge, and was educated at Peterhouse, Cambridge, obtaining his BA in 188 ...

*1909–1910

Herbert Hall Turner Herbert Hall Turner (13 August 1861 – 20 August 1930) was a British astronomer and seismologist. Biography Herbert Hall Turner was educated at the Leeds Modern School, Clifton College, Bristol and Trinity College, Cambridge. In 1884 h ...

*1911–1912 E. W. Hobson *1913–1914 Alfred George Greenhill *1915–1916

Alfred North Whitehead Alfred North Whitehead (15 February 1861 – 30 December 1947) was an English mathematician and philosopher. He is best known as the defining figure of the philosophical school known as process philosophy, which today has found applicat ...

*1918–1919

Percy Nunn Sir Thomas Percy Nunn (28 December 1870 – 12 December 1944) was a British educationalist, Professor of Education, 1913–36 at Institute of Education, University of London. He was knighted in 1930. Early life Nunn was born in Bristol in 1870. ...

*1920

E. T. Whittaker Sir Edmund Taylor Whittaker (24 October 1873 – 24 March 1956) was a British mathematician, physicist, and historian of science. Whittaker was a leading mathematical scholar of the early 20th-century who contributed widely to applied mathema ...

*1921

James Wilson James Wilson may refer to: Politicians and government officials Canada *James Wilson (Upper Canada politician) (1770–1847), English-born farmer and political figure in Upper Canada * James Crocket Wilson (1841–1899), Canadian MP from Quebe ...

*1922–1923

Thomas Little Heath Sir Thomas Little Heath (; 5 October 1861 – 16 March 1940) was a British civil servant, mathematician, classical scholar, historian of ancient Greek mathematics, translator, and mountaineer. He was educated at Clifton College. Heath translat ...

*1924–1925

*1926–1927

Micaiah John Muller Hill Micaiah John Muller Hill FRS (1856–1929) was an English mathematician, known for Hill's spherical vortex and Hill's tetrahedra. He was born on 22 February 1856 in Bengal, India, the son of Revd. Samuel John Hill (1825–1881) and Leonora Jo ...

*1928–1929

William Fleetwood Sheppard William Fleetwood Sheppard FRSE LLM (20 November 1863 – 12 October 1936) Australian-British civil servant, mathematician and statistician remembered for his work in finite differences A finite difference is a mathematical expression of ...

*1930–1931

Arthur Eddington Sir Arthur Stanley Eddington (28 December 1882 – 22 November 1944) was an English astronomer, physicist, and mathematician. He was also a philosopher of science and a populariser of science. The Eddington limit, the natural limit to the lumin ...

*1932–1933 G. N. Watson *1934

Eric Harold Neville Eric Harold Neville, known as E. H. Neville (1 January 1889 London, England – 22 August 1961 Reading, Berkshire, England) was an English mathematician. A heavily fictionalised portrayal of his life is rendered in the 2007 novel ''The Indian ...

MA presidents have served 1 year terms, starting with Neville. *1935 A W Siddons *1936 Andrew Forsyth *1937

Louis Napoleon George Filon Louis Napoleon George Filon, FRS (22 November 1875 – 29 December 1937) was an English applied mathematician, famous for his research on classical mechanics and particularly the theory of elasticity and the mechanics of continuous media. He also ...

*1938 W Hope-Jones *1939 W C Fletcher *1944 C O Tuckey MA *1945 Sydney Chapman *1946 Warin Foster Bushell *1947

George Barker Jeffery George Barker Jeffery FRS (9 May 1891 – 27 April 1957) was a leading mathematical physicist in the early twentieth century. He is probably best known to the scientifically literate public as the translator of papers by Albert Einstein, Hendri ...

*1948

Harold Spencer Jones Sir Harold Spencer Jones KBE FRS FRSE PRAS (29 March 1890 – 3 November 1960) was an English astronomer. He became renowned as an authority on positional astronomy and served as the tenth Astronomer Royal for 23 years. Although born " ...

*1949 A Robson MA *1950 Professor H R Hasse MA, DSc *1951

*1952 K S Snell MA *1953 Professor T A A Broadbent MA *1954 W. V. D. Hodge *1955 G L Parsons MA *1956 George Frederick James Temple *1957 W J Langford JP, MSc *1958

Max Newman Maxwell Herman Alexander Newman, FRS, (7 February 1897 – 22 February 1984), generally known as Max Newman, was a British mathematician and codebreaker. His work in World War II led to the construction of Colossus, the world's first operatio ...

*1959 Louise Doris Adams *1960

Edwin A. Maxwell Edwin Arthur Maxwell (12 January 1907 – 27 August 1987) was a Scottish mathematician, who worked at Cambridge University for most of his career. Although his contributions to original research were limited, his main contribution was in the are ...

*1961 J T Combridge MA, MSc *1962 Professor V C A Ferraro PhD, DIC *1963 J B Morgan MA *1964

Ida Busbridge Ida Winifred Busbridge (1908–1988) was a British mathematician who taught at the University of Oxford from 1935 until 1970. She was the first woman to be appointed to an Oxford fellowship in mathematics. Early life and education Ida Busbridg ...

*1965 Elizabeth Williams *1966 F W Kellaway BSc *1967 A.P. Rollett *1968

Charles Coulson Charles Alfred Coulson (13 December 1910 – 7 January 1974) was a British applied mathematician and theoretical chemist. Coulson's major scientific work was as a pioneer of the application of the quantum theory of valency to problems of m ...

*1969

Bertha Swirles Bertha Swirles, Lady Jeffreys (22 May 1903 – 18 December 1999) was an English physicist, academic and scientific author who carried out research on quantum theory in its early days. She was associated with Girton College, University of Cam ...

*1970

James Lighthill Sir Michael James Lighthill (23 January 1924 – 17 July 1998) was a British applied mathematician, known for his pioneering work in the field of aeroacoustics and for writing the Lighthill report on artificial intelligence. Biography J ...

*1971 B T Bellis MA, FRSE, FIMA *1972 C T Daltry BSc, FIMA *1973 William McCrea *1974 Margaret Hayman *1975

Reuben Goodstein Reuben Louis Goodstein (15 December 1912 – 8 March 1985) was an English mathematician with a strong interest in the philosophy and teaching of mathematics. Education Goodstein was educated at St Paul's School in London. He received his Master ...

*1976 E Kerr BSc, PhD, FIMA, FBCS *1977 Professor G Matthews MA, PhD, FIMA *1978 Alan Tammadge *1979

Clive W. Kilmister Clive William Kilmister (3 January 1924 – 2 May 2010) was a British mathematician who specialised in the mathematical foundations of physics, especially quantum mechanics and relativity. Kilmister attended Queen Mary College London for both hi ...

*1980 D A Quadling MA, FIMA, later OBE *1981

Michael Atiyah Sir Michael Francis Atiyah (; 22 April 1929 – 11 January 2019) was a British-Lebanese mathematician specialising in geometry. His contributions include the Atiyah–Singer index theorem and co-founding topological K-theory. He was awarded th ...

*1982 F J Budden BSc *1983 Rolph Ludwig Edward Schwarzenberger *1984 P B Coaker BSc, ARCS, DIC, FIMA, FBCS *1985 Hilary Shuard *1986 Anita Straker *1987

Margaret Rayner Margaret Eva Rayner (21 August 1929 – 31 May 2019) was a British mathematician who became vice principal of St Hilda's College, Oxford and president of the Mathematical Association. She was known for her research on isoperimetric inequalitie ...

*1988 A.G. Howson *1989 Mr Peter Reynolds MA *1990

Margaret Brown Margaret Brown (née Tobin; July 18, 1867 – October 26, 1932), posthumously known as "The Unsinkable Molly Brown", was an American socialite and philanthropist. She unsuccessfully encouraged the crew in Lifeboat No. 6 to return to the debris ...

*1991 *1992 Mr John Hersee MA *1993 Dr William Wynne-Wilson BA, PhD *1994 Mary Bradburn *1995 E. Roy Ashley *1996 W. P. Richardson MBE *1997 Tony Gardiner *1998 Professor J Chris Robson *1999 John S Berry *2000 Mr Stephen Abbott BSc, MSc *2001 Dr Sue Sanders Cert.Ed, BA, MEd, PhD *2002 Mr Barry Lewis BSc, BA, FIMA *2003

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 ...

*2004 Professor Adam McBride *2005 Sue Singer *2006 Mr Doug French *2007

Rob Eastaway Rob Eastaway is an English author. He is active in the popularisation of mathematics and was awarded the Zeeman medal in 2017 for excellence in the promotion of maths. He is best known for his books, including the bestselling ''Why Do Buses Come ...

*2008 Mr Robert Barbour *2009 Mrs Jane Imrie *2010 David Acheson *2011 Dr Paul Andrews *2012 Professor Marcus Du Sautoy OBE FRS *2013 Mr Peter Ransom MBE *2014 Lynne McClure OBE *2015 Dr Peter M. Neumann OBE *2016 Dr Jennie Golding *2017 Mr Tom Roper *2018 Professor Mike Askew *2019 Dr Ems Lord *2020 Professor Hannah Fry *2021 Dr Chris Pritchard *2022 Dr Colin Foster (President) *2023 Professor Nira Chamberlain (President Designate)

Arms

References

* * * Michael H Price ''Mathematics of the Multitude? A History of the Mathematical Association'' (MA, 1994)

External links

The Mathematical Association website

Complete list of Presidents of the Association

The MA's online shop

Annual conference

The Mathematical Gazette No. 1, 30, 31, 37–39, 41, 43 (1901–1904)
on the

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...

digitised by Google from the Harvard University Library

News items

Addressing the downward spiral of UK maths education in February 2004

Proposal to split Maths GCSE into two in August 2003
{{Mathematics in the United Kingdom 1871 establishments in the United Kingdom Educational charities based in the United Kingdom Learned societies of the United Kingdom Leicester Mathematics education in the United Kingdom Mathematical societies Organisations based in Leicestershire Organizations established in 1871 Teacher associations based in the United Kingdom