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Andrew Forsyth
Times obituary
MATHEMATICAL ANALYSIS
Dr. A. R. Forsyth, Sc.D., F.R.S., Emeritus Professor at the Imperial College of Science and Technology, who died in London yesterday, made many original contributions in fields formerly left to Continental mathematicians.
Andrew Russell Forsyth was born at Glasgow on June 18, 1858, and was educated at Liverpool College and at Trinity College, Cambridge. In 1881 he was Senior Wrangler and First Smith's Prizeman, and he held a Fellowship at Trinity until 1910. In 1882-83 he was professor of mathematics at University College, Liverpool, but Cambridge soon reclaimed him, and in 1889 he was appointed Sadleirian Professor in succession to Cayley, whose mathematical papers he edited and published.
Forsyth resigned the chair in 1910. His years at Cambridge were extraordinarily fruitful. His "Treatise on Differential Equations," published in 1885, firmly established his reputation. A scholarly work on Plaft's Problems and the First Part of his "Theory of Differential Equations" appeared in 1890—a monumental work ultimately completed in 1906. His great Treatise on the Theory of Functions, the first of its kind in English, led to an awakening of interest in a subject hereto almost exclusively foreign
In 1913, Forsyth became chief professor of mathematics at Imperial College, where a new policy had been framed to raise the standard of mathematical teaching and to bring it into closer relation with that of applied science. Forsyth held this post for 10 years. His activity was undiminished; in 1927, he gave to the world his "Calculus of Variations," which systematized a subject hitherto treated sporadically and included much novel material. In 1928, he edited Burnside's "Theory of Probability," and in 1930, he brought out his "Geometry of Four Dimensions." This last work was noteworthy, in view of current physical theories, for its insistence that a curved space needed a flat space of higher dimensions for its expression.
Forsyth was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1886 and awarded the Royal Medal in 1897, and he received many other honors. All his treatises were marked by perfect form and devastating completeness. He also had the humor of a specialized kind, even to the point of joviality. As a teacher, he was sympathetic and always ready with vast stores of information. He married Marion Amelia, daughter of the late Henry Pollock; she died in 1920.
MATHEMATICAL ANALYSIS
Dr. A. R. Forsyth, Sc.D., F.R.S., Emeritus Professor at the Imperial College of Science and Technology, who died in London yesterday, made many original contributions in fields formerly left to Continental mathematicians.
Andrew Russell Forsyth was born at Glasgow on June 18, 1858, and was educated at Liverpool College and at Trinity College, Cambridge. In 1881 he was Senior Wrangler and First Smith's Prizeman, and he held a Fellowship at Trinity until 1910. In 1882-83 he was professor of mathematics at University College, Liverpool, but Cambridge soon reclaimed him, and in 1889 he was appointed Sadleirian Professor in succession to Cayley, whose mathematical papers he edited and published.
Forsyth resigned the chair in 1910. His years at Cambridge were extraordinarily fruitful. His "Treatise on Differential Equations," published in 1885, firmly established his reputation. A scholarly work on Plaft's Problems and the First Part of his "Theory of Differential Equations" appeared in 1890—a monumental work ultimately completed in 1906. His great Treatise on the Theory of Functions, the first of its kind in English, led to an awakening of interest in a subject hereto almost exclusively foreign
In 1913, Forsyth became chief professor of mathematics at Imperial College, where a new policy had been framed to raise the standard of mathematical teaching and to bring it into closer relation with that of applied science. Forsyth held this post for 10 years. His activity was undiminished; in 1927, he gave to the world his "Calculus of Variations," which systematized a subject hitherto treated sporadically and included much novel material. In 1928, he edited Burnside's "Theory of Probability," and in 1930, he brought out his "Geometry of Four Dimensions." This last work was noteworthy, in view of current physical theories, for its insistence that a curved space needed a flat space of higher dimensions for its expression.
Forsyth was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1886 and awarded the Royal Medal in 1897, and he received many other honors. All his treatises were marked by perfect form and devastating completeness. He also had the humor of a specialized kind, even to the point of joviality. As a teacher, he was sympathetic and always ready with vast stores of information. He married Marion Amelia, daughter of the late Henry Pollock; she died in 1920.
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