Henry Jack

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". ...

(6 July 1917 – 5 January 1978) was a Scottish mathematician at

University College Dundee The University of Dundee is a public research university based in Dundee, Scotland. It was founded as a university college in 1881 with a donation from the prominent Baxter family of textile manufacturers. The institution was, for most of its ...

. The Jack polynomials are named after him. His research dealt with the development of analytic methods to evaluate certain integrals over matrix spaces. His most famous paper relates his integrals to classes of symmetric polynomials important in the theory of the representation of the symmetric group. He discovered a new, natural basis for the symmetric polynomials.

Life

He was born at

Menzieshill Menzieshill is a suburb and community council area in Dundee, Scotland. It is located in the west of the city, and is immediately north west of Blackness and the West End, west of Lochee, east of Gowrie Park and south of Charleston. Menzies ...

near

Dundee Dundee (; ; or , ) is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, fourth-largest city in Scotland. The mid-year population estimate for the locality was . It lies within the eastern central Lowlands on the north bank of the Firt ...

on 6 July 1917, the son of Henry Jack, a farmer. He was christened at

Benvie Benvie, is a hamlet and former parish and feudal barony in Angus, Scotland. The hamlet is situated on the Invergowrie Burn, northwest of Dundee Dundee (; ; or , ) is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, fourth-largest ...

church. He was educated at the

High School of Dundee The High School of Dundee is a private, co-educational, day school in Dundee, Scotland, which provides nursery, primary and secondary education to just over one thousand pupils. Its foundation has been dated to 1239, and it is the only private sc ...

then studied Mathematics 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 ...

(graduating MA in 1940). During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

he served as a

meteorologist A meteorologist is a scientist who studies and works in the field of meteorology aiming to understand or predict Earth's atmosphere of Earth, atmospheric phenomena including the weather. Those who study meteorological phenomena are meteorologists ...

with the RAF then resumed studies at

Cambridge University The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

, gaining a further BA degree in 1949. In 1950 he was appointed as a lecturer in mathematics at University College Dundee, then a college of 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 ...

, but later to be the

University of Dundee The University of Dundee is a public research university based in Dundee, Scotland. It was founded as a university college in 1881 with a donation from the prominent Baxter family of textile manufacturers. The institution was, for most of its ...

. He was appointed senior lecturer in 1964 and promoted to a readership in 1970. In 1970 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 ...

. His proposers were W Norrie Everitt, D S Jones,

John Frank Allen John Frank Allen, FRS FRSE (May 5, 1908 – April 22, 2001) was a Canadian physicist. At the same time as Pyotr Leonidovich Kapitsa in Moscow, Don Misener and Allen independently discovered the superfluid phase of matter in 1937 using liqui ...

Robert Alexander Rankin Robert Alexander Rankin FRSE FRSAMD (27 October 1915 – 27 January 2001) was a Scottish mathematician who worked in analytic number theory. Life Rankin was born in Garlieston in Wigtownshire the son of Rev Oliver Rankin (1885–1954), minister ...

and

Anthony Elliot Ritchie Anthony Elliot Ritchie FRSE FRCPE LLD (30 March 1915–14 September 1997) was a 20th-century Scottish physiologist and educator. Life Ritchie was born at 20 Upper Gray Street, Edinburgh on 30 March 1915, the only son of Jessie Jane Elliot an ...

. He won the Society's Keith Prize for the period 1967/69. He died of liver cancer at home at 77 Blackness Avenue in Dundee on 5 January 1978.

Family

He was married to Jean Mills ("Winkie") in 1956. She was a widow with three sons at the time of their marriage.

References

1917 births 1978 deaths People educated at the High School of Dundee Academics of the University of Dundee 20th-century Scottish mathematicians {{UK-mathematician-stub