Harold Stanley Ruse (12 February 1905 – 20 October 1974) was an English mathematician, noteworthy for the development of the concept of locally harmonic spaces. He was Professor of Pure Mathematics at the University of Leeds.

Early life and education

Ruse was born in

Hastings Hastings ( ) is a seaside town and Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough in East Sussex on the south coast of England, east of Lewes and south east of London. The town gives its name to the Battle of Hastings, which took place to th ...

Sussex Sussex (Help:IPA/English, /ˈsʌsɪks/; from the Old English ''Sūþseaxe''; lit. 'South Saxons'; 'Sussex') is an area within South East England that was historically a kingdom of Sussex, kingdom and, later, a Historic counties of England, ...

in 1905, the son of Frederick Ruse, a greengrocer and his wife, Lydia. He was educated at

Hastings Grammar School Hastings ( ) is a seaside town and borough in East Sussex on the south coast of England, east of Lewes and south east of London. The town gives its name to the Battle of Hastings, which took place to the north-west at Senlac Hill in 1066. ...

and then studied Mathematics at

Jesus College, Oxford Jesus College (in full: Jesus College in the University of Oxford of Queen Elizabeth's Foundation) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. It is in the centre of the city, on a site between Turl Street, Ship ...

, graduating with the degree of BA ( later converted to MA). In 1927 he went to 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 ...

as a Bruce of Grangehill research scholar. He was awarded the degree of

DSc DSC or Dsc may refer to: Education * Doctor of Science (D.Sc.) * District Selection Committee, an entrance exam in India * Doctor of Surgical Chiropody, superseded in the 1960s by Doctor of Podiatric Medicine Educational institutions * Dyal Sin ...

by Edinburgh five years later.

Academic career

Ruse remained at Edinburgh where he was appointed

lecturer Lecturer is an academic rank within many universities, though the meaning of the term varies somewhat from country to country. It generally denotes an academic expert who is hired to teach on a full- or part-time basis. They may also conduct re ...

in mathematics in 1928. Additionally, he spent the

academic year An academic year, or school year, is a period that schools, colleges and university, universities use to measure the duration of studies for a given educational level. Academic years are often divided into academic terms. Students attend classe ...

1933–34 as a Rockefeller Research Fellow at

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...

. He was to return to Princeton again in 1952–53.Patterson, E. M. "Harold Stanley Ruse." Bulletin of the London Mathematical Society 8, no. 2 (1976): 203–210. Ruse became

Professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other tertiary education, post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin ...

of Mathematics at University College, Southampton (now the

University of Southampton The University of Southampton (abbreviated as ''Soton'' in post-nominal letters) is a public university, public research university in Southampton, England. Southampton is a founding member of the Russell Group of research-intensive universit ...

) in 1937 and in 1946 was appointed Professor of

Pure Mathematics Pure mathematics is the study of mathematical concepts independently of any application outside mathematics. These concepts may originate in real-world concerns, and the results obtained may later turn out to be useful for practical applications ...

at the

University of Leeds The University of Leeds is a public research university in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It was established in 1874 as the Yorkshire College of Science. In 1884, it merged with the Leeds School of Medicine (established 1831) and was renamed Y ...

. At Leeds he was Head of the Department of Mathematics from 1948 to 1968 and then Chairman of the School of Mathematics from 1968 to 1970 when he retired as

emeritus ''Emeritus/Emerita'' () is an honorary title granted to someone who retires from a position of distinction, most commonly an academic faculty position, but is allowed to continue using the previous title, as in "professor emeritus". In some c ...

professor. Ruse was a member of the

Edinburgh Mathematical Society The Edinburgh Mathematical Society is a mathematical society for academics in Scotland. History The Society was founded in 1883 by a group of Edinburgh school teachers and academics, on the initiative of Alexander Yule Fraser FRSE and Andrew ...

from 1927, the Society's secretary from 1930 to 1933 and its president for one year from 1935 to 1936. He became a member of the

London Mathematical Society The London Mathematical Society (LMS) is one of the United Kingdom's Learned society, learned societies for mathematics (the others being the Royal Statistical Society (RSS), the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications (IMA), the Edinburgh ...

in 1929, a member of its Council from 1938 to 1945 and its vice-president for one year from 1942 to 1943. Ruse is credited for introducing the theory of

bitensor In differential geometry and general relativity, a bitensor (or bi-tensor) is a tensorial object that depends on two points in a manifold, as opposed to ordinary tensors which depend on a single point. Bitensors provide a framework for describing ...

s in his 1931 paper ''An Absolute Partial Differential Calculus''.

Honours

In 1931 Ruse was elected a

Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 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". ...

(FRSE). His proposers were 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 ...

, Sir

Charles Galton Darwin Sir Charles Galton Darwin (19 December 1887 – 31 December 1962) was an English physicist who served as director of the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) during the Second World War. He was a son of the mathematician George Darwin and a gr ...

Edward Thomas Copson Edward Thomas Copson FRSE (21 August 1901 – 16 February 1980) was a British mathematician who contributed widely to the development of mathematics at the University of St Andrews, serving as Regius Professor of Mathematics amongst other posi ...

and

Charles Glover Barkla Charles Glover Barkla (7 June 1877 – 23 October 1944) was an English physicist who received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1917 for his discovery of characteristic X-rays. Life Barkla was born in Widnes, England, to John Martin Barkla, a sec ...

. The RSE awarded him 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 ...

for an outstanding scientific paper published during 1935–1937 in the RSE's scientific journals. He was an Invited Speaker of the

ICM ICM may refer to: Organizations * Irish Church Missions, an Anglican mission * Institut du Cerveau, the Paris Brain Institute, a research center * Interdisciplinary Centre for Mathematical and Computational Modelling, University of Warsaw * Interna ...

in 1936 in Oslo.

Death

Ruse died suddenly in

Leeds Leeds is a city in West Yorkshire, England. It is the largest settlement in Yorkshire and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds Metropolitan Borough, which is the second most populous district in the United Kingdom. It is built aro ...

in 1974 at the age of 69. On the day before his death he had attended an algebra seminar at the university. He was unmarried and had no children.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ruse, Harold Stanley 1905 births 1974 deaths 20th-century English mathematicians People educated at Hastings Grammar School Alumni of Jesus College, Oxford Academics of the University of Edinburgh Academics of the University of Southampton Academics of the University of Leeds Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh