Benjamin Williamson (1827–1916) was an Irish mathematician who was a Fellow of

Trinity College Dublin , name_Latin = Collegium Sanctae et Individuae Trinitatis Reginae Elizabethae juxta Dublin , motto = ''Perpetuis futuris temporibus duraturam'' (Latin) , motto_lang = la , motto_English = It will last i ...

(TCD) for over 60 years and was Professor of Natural Philosophy there from 1884 to 1890.Dr. Benjamin Williamson, F.R.S.
Obituary: Nature volume 96, page 541, 13 January 1916Author:Benjamin Williamson
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Life and career

Williamson was born in

Mallow, County Cork Mallow (; ) is a town in County Cork, Ireland, approximately thirty-five kilometres north of Cork. Mallow is in the barony of Fermoy. It is the administrative centre of north County Cork, and the Northern Divisional Offices of Cork County Cou ...

, son of the Rev Benjamin Williamson. He attended

Kilkenny College Kilkenny College is an independent Church of Ireland co-educational day and boarding secondary school located in Kilkenny, in the South-East of Ireland. It is the largest co-educational boarding school in Ireland. The school's students are mainly ...

. At TCD he was awarded BA (1849) and MA (1855), having become a Fellow in 1852. He was

Donegall Lecturer in Mathematics The Donegall Lecturership at Trinity College Dublin, is one of two endowed mathematics positions at Trinity College Dublin (TCD), the other being the Erasmus Smith's Chair of Mathematics. The Donegall (sometimes spelt Donegal) Lectureship was e ...

(1876–1884), and then Professor of Natural Philosophy (1884–1890). TCD awarded him a DSc (1891) and

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the Un ...

DCL DCL or may refer to: * 650 in Roman numerals, see 650 (disambiguation) Computers * Data Center Linux, see Open Source Development Labs * Data Control Language, a subset of SQL * Dialog Control Language, a language and interpreter within AutoC ...

(1892). He later became vice provost of TCD (1908), and died in Dublin. His two calculus books were very popular and ran into many editions over the 40 years following their publication.Obituary: Benjamin Williamson

Irish Independent The ''Irish Independent'' is an Irish daily newspaper and online publication which is owned by Independent News & Media (INM), a subsidiary of Mediahuis. The newspaper version often includes glossy magazines. Traditionally a broadsheet n ...

Books

* 1872 ''An Elementary Treatise on the Differential Calculus, Containing the Theory of Plane Curves, With Numerous Examples'' * 1874 ''An Elementary Treatise on the Integral Calculus, containing applications to plane curves and surfaces'' * 1884 ''An Elementary Treatise on Dynamics, containing applications to thermodynamics, with numerous examples'' (co-written with F. A. Tarleton) * 1894 ''An Introduction to the Mathematical Theory of Stress and Strain of Elastic Solids''

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Williamson, Benjamin 1827 births 1916 deaths Alumni of Trinity College Dublin Donegall Lecturers of Mathematics at Trinity College Dublin Fellows of Trinity College Dublin Academics of Trinity College Dublin People from Mallow, County Cork Scientists from County Cork Scholars and academics from County Cork