MacTutor
Professor Joseph Proudman, for many years a leading authority on Tides, died on June 28 at the age of 86. He graduated at Liverpool in 1910 before going on to Trinity College, Cambridge, where he became Wrangler with distinction and Smith's prizeman in 1912. He returned to Liverpool as Lecturer in 1913, and was appointed Professor of Applied Mathematics in 1919. He transferred to the chair of Oceanography after the retirement of James Johnstone in 1933, holding it till his retirement in 1954. During this period he gave great service to the University, and to the City, in which he served as JP for many years.
He began his interest in tides at Cambridge under the influence of Horace Lamb, helping him with a report to the British Association. Convinced of the need for more research he founded the Tidal Institute with the help of the Booth family in 1919, serving as its Honorary Director with A.T.Doodson as Secretary till 1945, when he retired for Doodson to take over. It is typical that he devoted the money from his Adam's Prize, won in 1923, to the new institute. He published papers on tides from 1914 onwards, and in 1964 and 1968 he wrote gracious biographical notices of his lifelong colleagues G.R.Goldsbrough and A.T.Doodson. All three were Fellows of the Royal Society from 1925, 1929 and 1933.
In his Darwin Lecture, delivered in 1944, he gave a short history of tidal studies and mentioned Darwin's contributions before summarizing his own work. One of the paragraphs that specially attracted the attention of his audience was 'A question often asked is: Why are the tides of the Mediterranean so small? The answer is: The tides of the Mediterranean are just about of the magnitude that the simplest dynamical theory indicates. The much more interesting question is: Why are the tides of the Atlantic so large?" He carried out his study of ocean tides and propagation of Kelvin and Poincaré waves about as far as was possible before electronic computation.
His textbook Dynamical Oceanography, published in 1952 and still used, marked the coming-of-age of oceanography. It is difficult to assess its full effect, but our strong western boundary currents, conservation of angular momentum and vorticity, the significance of Earth tides and other recently developed ideas on internal waves, turbulence, friction and mixing are all advanced in it.
In the early 1940s Proudman recognized the need for another Institute to foster aspects of physical oceanography beyond the direct interests of the Tidal Institute, and he was largely instrumental in founding the National Institute of Oceanography, now the Institute of Oceanographic Sciences. It was largely his advice and inspiration which soon made it known throughout the world as a laboratory able to recognize the important factors and study them effectively at relatively little cost. He served on the Departmental Committee set up under Lord Waverly after the disastrous coastal flooding of 1953, and was chairman of its oceanographic sub-committee.
He had an important influence on international programmes, attending the first meeting of IUGG in Rome in 1922, and serving the International Association of Physical Oceanography as Secretary and President during its formative period. He was elected a Member of the Norwegian Academy in 1946 and awarded the US National Academy's Alexander Agassiz Medal the same year. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1920.
He was particularly helpful to beginners and many of us owe much to him.
G.E.R.DEACON
He began his interest in tides at Cambridge under the influence of Horace Lamb, helping him with a report to the British Association. Convinced of the need for more research he founded the Tidal Institute with the help of the Booth family in 1919, serving as its Honorary Director with A.T.Doodson as Secretary till 1945, when he retired for Doodson to take over. It is typical that he devoted the money from his Adam's Prize, won in 1923, to the new institute. He published papers on tides from 1914 onwards, and in 1964 and 1968 he wrote gracious biographical notices of his lifelong colleagues G.R.Goldsbrough and A.T.Doodson. All three were Fellows of the Royal Society from 1925, 1929 and 1933.
In his Darwin Lecture, delivered in 1944, he gave a short history of tidal studies and mentioned Darwin's contributions before summarizing his own work. One of the paragraphs that specially attracted the attention of his audience was 'A question often asked is: Why are the tides of the Mediterranean so small? The answer is: The tides of the Mediterranean are just about of the magnitude that the simplest dynamical theory indicates. The much more interesting question is: Why are the tides of the Atlantic so large?" He carried out his study of ocean tides and propagation of Kelvin and Poincaré waves about as far as was possible before electronic computation.
His textbook Dynamical Oceanography, published in 1952 and still used, marked the coming-of-age of oceanography. It is difficult to assess its full effect, but our strong western boundary currents, conservation of angular momentum and vorticity, the significance of Earth tides and other recently developed ideas on internal waves, turbulence, friction and mixing are all advanced in it.
In the early 1940s Proudman recognized the need for another Institute to foster aspects of physical oceanography beyond the direct interests of the Tidal Institute, and he was largely instrumental in founding the National Institute of Oceanography, now the Institute of Oceanographic Sciences. It was largely his advice and inspiration which soon made it known throughout the world as a laboratory able to recognize the important factors and study them effectively at relatively little cost. He served on the Departmental Committee set up under Lord Waverly after the disastrous coastal flooding of 1953, and was chairman of its oceanographic sub-committee.
He had an important influence on international programmes, attending the first meeting of IUGG in Rome in 1922, and serving the International Association of Physical Oceanography as Secretary and President during its formative period. He was elected a Member of the Norwegian Academy in 1946 and awarded the US National Academy's Alexander Agassiz Medal the same year. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1920.
He was particularly helpful to beginners and many of us owe much to him.
G.E.R.DEACON
Joseph Proudman's obituary appeared in Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society 17:2 (1976), 187-188.