Duncan Austin Lawson is a British

mathematician A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, mathematical structure, structure, space, Mathematica ...

known for work in mathematics education including university-wide mathematics and statistics support.

Early life and education

Lawson attended Bury Grammar School and later obtained a BA and D.Phil. from the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

Career

Lawson worked for British Gas plc before moving to

Coventry University Coventry University is a Public university, public research university in Coventry, England. The origins of Coventry University can be linked to the Coventry School of Art and Design, Coventry School of Design in 1843. It was known as Lancheste ...

in 1987. His research interests are in efficient computational methods for the calculation of thermal radiative heat transfer. From 2005 to 2010 Lawson with Tony Croft established the sigma Centre for Excellence in University-wide mathematics and statistics support, which was awarded the 2011 ''Times Higher Education'' Award for Outstanding Support for Students. The centre later developed under the National HE STEM Programme into the sigma Network for Excellence in Mathematics and Statistics Support. Lawson was awarded National Teaching Fellowship in 2005. Lawson also acted as Assistant Chief Executive of the Higher Education Academy from 2012-13. Lawson was professor and associate dean of the faculty of science and engineering at

(2002–13), director of the Maths, Stats & OR Network of the Higher Education Academy (2005-9), and chair of the executive group of the More Maths Grads project (2008–10). From 2013-18, Lawson was pro-vice-chancellor of formative education at Newman University in

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...

, before returning to Coventry. Lawson received the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications' Gold Medal in 2016 jointly with Croft for "an outstanding contribution to the improvement of the teaching of mathematics" by establishing Sigma. Lawson was appointed

Member of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

(MBE) in the 2019 Birthday Honours for services to mathematics in higher education. Lawson is currently director of the sigma maths support centre at Coventry University.

Footnotes

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lawson, Duncan Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Alumni of the University of Oxford 20th-century British mathematicians 21st-century British mathematicians Academics of Coventry University Members of the Order of the British Empire People associated with Birmingham Newman University