Samuel Beatty (1881–1970) was

dean Dean may refer to: People * Dean (given name) * Dean (surname), a surname of Anglo-Saxon English origin * Dean (South Korean singer), a stage name for singer Kwon Hyuk * Dean Delannoit, a Belgian singer most known by the mononym Dean Titles * ...

of the

Faculty of Mathematics 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 ...

at the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution ...

, taking the position in 1934.

Early life

Beatty was born in 1881. In 1915, he graduated from the

with a PhD and a dissertation entitled ''Extensions of Results Concerning the Derivatives of an Algebraic Function of a Complex Variable'', with the help of his adviser,

John Charles Fields John Charles Fields, FRS, FRSC (May 14, 1863 – August 9, 1932) was a Canadian mathematician and the founder of the Fields Medal for outstanding achievement in mathematics. Career Born in Hamilton, Ontario, to a leather shop owner, Fields ...

. He was the first person to receive a PhD in mathematics from a Canadian university. In 1925 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. In 1926, he published a problem in the ''

American Mathematical Monthly ''The American Mathematical Monthly'' is a mathematical journal founded by Benjamin Finkel in 1894. It is published ten times each year by Taylor & Francis for the Mathematical Association of America. The ''American Mathematical Monthly'' is an e ...

'', which formed the genesis for the

Beatty sequence In mathematics, a Beatty sequence (or homogeneous Beatty sequence) is the sequence of integers found by taking the floor of the positive multiples of a positive irrational number. Beatty sequences are named after Samuel Beatty, who wrote about th ...

University of Toronto

Beatty was

of the

at the

, taking the position in 1934. The famous mathematician

Richard Brauer Richard Dagobert Brauer (February 10, 1901 – April 17, 1977) was a leading German and American mathematician. He worked mainly in abstract algebra, but made important contributions to number theory. He was the founder of modular represent ...

was recruited by Beatty in 1935. He invited

Harold Scott MacDonald Coxeter Harold Scott MacDonald "Donald" Coxeter, (9 February 1907 – 31 March 2003) was a British and later also Canadian geometer. He is regarded as one of the greatest geometers of the 20th century. Biography Coxeter was born in Kensington t ...

to the University of Toronto with a position as an assistant professor, which Coxeter took; he remained in Toronto for the rest of his life. In June 1939, he was one of the founding members of the Committee of Teaching Staff. Beatty was appointed the 21st

Chancellor Chancellor ( la, cancellarius) is a title of various official positions in the governments of many nations. The original chancellors were the of Roman courts of justice—ushers, who sat at the or lattice work screens of a basilica or law cou ...

of the University of Toronto in 1953, holding the position until 1959. He was associated with the university from 1911 to 1952, and a scholarship was established in his honor. He died in 1970. In an era when extremely few women received PhDs in mathematics, Beatty supervised the mathematical PhDs of Mary Fisher and

Muriel Kennett Wales Muriel Kennett Wales (9 Jun 1913 – 8 August 2009) was an Irish-Canadian mathematician, and is believed to have been the first Irish-born woman to earn a PhD in pure mathematics. Life She was born Muriel Kennett on 9 June 1913 in Belfast. In 19 ...

Nobel Prize in Chemistry ) , image = Nobel Prize.png , alt = A golden medallion with an embossed image of a bearded man facing left in profile. To the left of the man is the text "ALFR•" then "NOBEL", and on the right, the text (smaller) "NAT•" then "M ...

winner

Walter Kohn Walter Kohn (; March 9, 1923 – April 19, 2016) was an Austrian-American theoretical physicist and theoretical chemist. He was awarded, with John Pople, the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1998. The award recognized their contributions to the unde ...

, a student at the university while Beatty was a dean, expressed his appreciation in 1998 to the dean when accepting the prize for his development of the

density functional theory Density-functional theory (DFT) is a computational quantum mechanical modelling method used in physics, chemistry and materials science to investigate the electronic structure (or nuclear structure) (principally the ground state) of many-body ...

. In 1942, when Kohn could not access the university's chemistry buildings during

World War II 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 opposin ...

because of his German nationality, Beatty had helped him to enroll in the Mathematics Department at the University.

Canadian Mathematical Society

Beatty was one of the founders of the Canadian Mathematical Congress and was elected to serve as the first president of the congress in 1945. Under his presidency, the Canadian Mathematical Congress began to promote mathematical development in Canada. Beatty served as the president of the Canadian Mathematical Congress until 1978 at which point the congress was renamed the Canadian Mathematical Society to avoid further confusion with the quadrennial mathematical congresses.

References

Overview of the Canadian Mathematical Society http://cms.math.ca/Docs/cms-eng.html

External links

* * *Archival papers held by the University of Toronto Archives and Record Management Services. {{DEFAULTSORT:Beatty, Samuel 1881 births 1970 deaths Chancellors of the University of Toronto Canadian university and college faculty deans University of Toronto alumni Canadian mathematicians Fellows of the Royal Society of Canada Presidents of the Canadian Mathematical Society