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Eric Temple Bell
Times obituary
Dr. Eric Temple Bell, Emeritus Professor of Mathematics at the Californian Institute of Technology, has died in California, Reuters reports. He was 77.
Born in Aberdeen of Scottish parents on February 7, 1883, Bell first went to the United States in 1902, and from 1926, until ill health overtook him a year ago, held the Chair of Mathematics at the Californian Institute. He was previously Instructor-Professor of Mathematics at Washington University for 14 years.
Bell, who was President of the Mathematical Association of America from 1931 to 1933, was a specialist in the theory of numbers. Among his best-known mathematical works were Men of Mathematics, an attempt to combine biographies of some of the greatest mathematicians from the time of the ancient Greeks down to the present day with an assessment of the significance of their scientific work in terms comprehensible to the ordinary man (published in this country in 1937), Algebraic Arithmetic, The Magic of Numbers, and Mathematics, Servant of Science.
Under the pen name of John Taine, Bell was also the author of some 16 science fiction novels -- the excuse Bell himself once wrote was that if these popular novels made money, some publishers might be interested in more serious books.
In 1910, Bell married Jessie Lillian Brown, by whom he had one son. His wife died in 1940.
Dr. Eric Temple Bell, Emeritus Professor of Mathematics at the Californian Institute of Technology, has died in California, Reuters reports. He was 77.
Born in Aberdeen of Scottish parents on February 7, 1883, Bell first went to the United States in 1902, and from 1926, until ill health overtook him a year ago, held the Chair of Mathematics at the Californian Institute. He was previously Instructor-Professor of Mathematics at Washington University for 14 years.
Bell, who was President of the Mathematical Association of America from 1931 to 1933, was a specialist in the theory of numbers. Among his best-known mathematical works were Men of Mathematics, an attempt to combine biographies of some of the greatest mathematicians from the time of the ancient Greeks down to the present day with an assessment of the significance of their scientific work in terms comprehensible to the ordinary man (published in this country in 1937), Algebraic Arithmetic, The Magic of Numbers, and Mathematics, Servant of Science.
Under the pen name of John Taine, Bell was also the author of some 16 science fiction novels -- the excuse Bell himself once wrote was that if these popular novels made money, some publishers might be interested in more serious books.
In 1910, Bell married Jessie Lillian Brown, by whom he had one son. His wife died in 1940.
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