Farewell to brilliant mathematician Eric Barnes

The article Farewell to brilliant mathematician Eric Barnes was written by Ren Potts, with the help of Jane Pitman and other members of the Department of Pure Mathematics of the University of Adelaide. It appears in the Adelaidean on 20 November 2000.

Farewell to brilliant mathematician Eric Barnes, by Ren Potts.

Emeritus Professor Eric Stephen Barnes died peacefully at his home in Lobethal on 16 October, after a long illness, aged 76 years.

Eric was born in Cardiff, Wales, but his parents soon moved to Sydney where he proved a gifted prize-winning student at Canterbury Boys' High School. He graduated in 1943 at the University of Sydney with First Class BA honours in Mathematics as well as in French.

His studies were interrupted by three years war service in an intelligence unit with the Citizen Military Forces. His exceptional expertise as a crypto-analyst earned him his commission as a lieutenant and helped him to decide to pursue a career in Mathematics rather than French.

In 1946 Eric was appointed a Teaching Fellow in Pure Mathematics at the University of Sydney and in 1947 he was awarded the J B Watt Scholarship for study in Cambridge where he was accepted by Trinity College. He gained his Cambridge BA degree in 1949 and his PhD for research in number theory in 1951. He won the prestigious Smith's Prize for Mathematics, was awarded a Fellowship at Trinity, and appointed as an Assistant Lecturer in Mathematics.

In 1953 he was appointed to a Readership in Pure Mathematics at Sydney University. In 1954 he was elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science, one of the first group to be elected after the Academy's foundation, and he was awarded the Academy's Thomas Ranken Lyle Medal in 1959.

When H W Sanders retired as Professor of Mathematics at the University of Adelaide in 1958, the Council decided to replace him by two professors, one in Pure Mathematics and one in Applied Mathematics. Eric was appointed as Elder Professor of Pure Mathematics while I was appointed to the Chair of Applied Mathematics. So began many years of close friendly cooperation as we helped transform a relatively inactive department to arguably the most active in Australia.

As well as being a brilliant research mathematician, Eric was a very clear expositor. He was an excellent lecturer over a wide range of courses from first year to honours level. He led the development of many mathematics subjects and soon established a strong research group in number theory, successfully supervising a sequence of postgraduate students. In historical order, his students were Jane Pitman (Sydney), and, at Adelaide, Paul Scott, Rod Worley, Tom Dickson, Peter Blanksby, the late Chris Nelson, and Dennis Trenerry.

During his first decade in Adelaide, Eric played a leading role in connection with school mathematics and began his involvement in university entrance matters. He served terms as Chief Examiner in Mathematics for the Public Examinations Board and as Chairman of the Board.

Perhaps to the detriment of his mathematical research, he became increasingly involved in administration. A partial list of the responsible positions he held in the University is impressive: Head of Department, First Dean of the Faculty of Mathematical Sciences, Chair of Education Committee, Member of University Council, Deputy Vice Chancellor.

With the support of A W Jones of the State Education Department, Eric was responsible for establishing the Mathematical Association of South Australia (the state professional association of mathematics teachers) and became its foundation President. Nationally, Eric was, at various times, President of the Australian Mathematical Society, a member of the Council of the Australian Academy of Science, and its Secretary (physical sciences).

In 1980, restructuring of the University's management saw the two Deputy Vice Chancellor positions discontinued, and Eric returned to the Pure Mathematics Department as a Professor, taking early retirement in 1983. The E S Barnes Prize (for third year Pure Mathematics) was established in his honour in 1984.

Eric's research was in the branch of number theory known as the geometry of numbers. In particular, he and several of his students studied packings of equal spheres in multi-dimensional space, a topic which has connections with crystallography, lattices, groups, and codes. His major contributions to this topic culminated in important joint work with N J Sloan of Bell Laboratory, Murray Hill, New Jersey, published in 1983.

Apart from mathematics, Eric's interests were in music (especially Mozart), language (especially French), bridge (especially ACOL), and chess (especially problems).

He will be sadly missed by his colleagues who will particularly remember him for the acuteness of his mind, his mathematical eminence, and for his signal contribution to teaching, research, and administration in the University.

Ken Potts, with the help of Jane Pitman and other members of the Department of Pure Mathematics.

Last Updated December 2025