Edward Thomas Copson

FRSE Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE) is an award granted to individuals that the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland's national academy of science and Literature, letters, judged to be "eminently distinguished in their subject". ...

(21 August 1901 – 16 February 1980) was 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 ...

who contributed widely to the development of mathematics at the

University of St Andrews The University of St Andrews (, ; abbreviated as St And in post-nominals) is a public university in St Andrews, Scotland. It is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, oldest of the four ancient universities of Scotland and, f ...

, serving as Regius Professor of Mathematics amongst other positions.

Life

He was born in

Coventry Coventry ( or rarely ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands county, in England, on the River Sherbourne. Coventry had been a large settlement for centurie ...

, and was a pupil at King Henry VIII School, Coventry. He studied at

St John's College, Oxford St John's College is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford. Founded as a men's college in 1555, it has been coeducational since 1979.Communication from Michael Riordan, college archivist Its foun ...

. He was appointed by

E. T. Whittaker Sir Edmund Taylor Whittaker (24 October 1873 – 24 March 1956) was a British mathematician, physicist, and historian of science. Whittaker was a leading mathematical scholar of the early 20th century who contributed widely to applied mathemat ...

as a lecturer at the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh (, ; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a Public university, public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Founded by the City of Edinburgh Council, town council under th ...

, where he was later awarded a DSc. He married Beatrice, the elder daughter of

, and moved to the University of St Andrews where he was Regius Professor of Mathematics, and later dean of science, then Master of the United College. He was instrumental in the construction of the new Mathematics Institute building at the university. He was elected a Fellow of the

Royal Society of Edinburgh The Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE) is Scotland's national academy of science and letters. It is a registered charity that operates on a wholly independent and non-partisan basis and provides public benefit throughout Scotland. It was establis ...

in 1924, his proposers being Sir

Edmund Taylor Whittaker Sir Edmund Taylor Whittaker (24 October 1873 – 24 March 1956) was a British mathematician, physicist, and historian of science. Whittaker was a leading mathematical scholar of the early 20th century who contributed widely to applied mathemat ...

Herbert Stanley Allen Herbert Stanley Allen FRSE FRS (29 December 1873 – 27 April 1954) was an English physicist from Cornwall noted as a pioneer in early X-ray research, working under J. J. Thomson at the University of London and alongside Nobel laureate Charles ...

Bevan Braithwaite Baker Bevan is a name of Welsh origin, derived from ab Ifan meaning "son of Evan" (Ifan being a variant of Ieuan, the Welsh equivalent of John). Notable people with the name include: Given name * Bevan Congdon (1938–2018), New Zealand cricketer * B ...

and A. Crichton Mitchell. He was awarded the

Keith Medal The Keith Medal was a prize awarded by the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland's national academy, for a scientific paper published in the society's scientific journals, preference being given to a paper containing a discovery, either in mathema ...

by the

in 1942 for his research in mathematics. He served as the Society's vice president from 1950 to 1953.

Work

Copson's primary focus was in

classical analysis Analysis is the branch of mathematics dealing with continuous functions, limits, and related theories, such as differentiation, integration, measure, infinite sequences, series, and analytic functions. These theories are usually studied in ...

asymptotic expansions In mathematics, an asymptotic expansion, asymptotic series or Poincaré expansion (after Henri Poincaré) is a formal series of functions which has the property that truncating the series after a finite number of terms provides an approximation t ...

, differential and

integral equations In mathematical analysis, integral equations are equations in which an unknown Function (mathematics), function appears under an integral sign. In mathematical notation, integral equations may thus be expressed as being of the form: f(x_1,x_2,x_3 ...

, and applications to problems in theoretical physics. His first book ''"The theory of functions of a complex variable"'' was published in 1935.

Publications

*Copson, E. T., ''An Introduction to the Theory of Functions of A Complex Variable'' (1935) *Baker, Bevan Braithwaite; Copson, E. T., "The Mathematical Theory of Huygens' Principle" (1939); 2nd edition 1950
3rd edition
1987 with several reprints *Copson, E. T., ''Asymptotic Expansions'' (1965); reprint 1976
2nd edition
2004 *Copson, E. T., ''Metric Spaces'' (1968); reprint with corrections 1972; reprint 1979
pbk. reprint
1988 *Copson, E. T., ''Partial Differential Equations'' (1975)

References

Alumni of St John's College, Oxford Alumni of the University of Edinburgh 20th-century British mathematicians People educated at King Henry VIII School, Coventry 1901 births 1980 deaths Academics of the University of St Andrews {{UK-mathematician-stub