John Francis Toland (born 28 April 1949 in

Derry Derry, officially Londonderry, is the second-largest City status in the United Kingdom, city in Northern Ireland, and the fifth-largest on the island of Ireland. Located in County Londonderry, the city now covers both banks of the River Fo ...

) is an Irish mathematician based in the UK. From 2011 to 2016 he served as director of the Isaac Newton Institute for Mathematical Sciences and N M Rothschild & Sons Professor of Mathematical Sciences at the

University of Cambridge 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 ...

Education

Toland was educated at

St Columb's College St Columb's College is a Roman Catholic boys' grammar school in Derry, Northern Ireland. Since 2008, it has been a specialist school in mathematics. It is named after Saint Columba, the missionary monk from County Donegal who founded a monast ...

in Derry and

Queen's University Belfast The Queen's University of Belfast, commonly known as Queen's University Belfast (; abbreviated Queen's or QUB), is a public research university in Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom. The university received its charter in 1845 as part of ...

, where he was awarded a Bachelor of Science degree in 1970. He completed postgraduate study at the

University of Sussex The University of Sussex is a public university, public research university, research university located in Falmer, East Sussex, England. It lies mostly within the city boundaries of Brighton and Hove. Its large campus site is surrounded by the ...

, where he was awarded a PhD in 1973 for research on topological methods for

nonlinear In mathematics and science, a nonlinear system (or a non-linear system) is a system in which the change of the output is not proportional to the change of the input. Nonlinear problems are of interest to engineers, biologists, physicists, mathe ...

eigenvalue In linear algebra, an eigenvector ( ) or characteristic vector is a vector that has its direction unchanged (or reversed) by a given linear transformation. More precisely, an eigenvector \mathbf v of a linear transformation T is scaled by a ...

problems supervised by Charles A. Stuart.

Career and research

From 1982 to 2011 he was professor of mathematics at the

University of Bath The University of Bath is a public research university in Bath, England. Bath received its royal charter in 1966 as Bath University of Technology, along with a number of other institutions following the Robbins Report. Like the University ...

, where he held an Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) Senior Fellowship 1997–2002. In addition from 2002 to 2010 he was scientific director of the International Centre for Mathematical Sciences (ICMS) in Edinburgh. In 2011 he succeeded Sir David Wallace as director of the Isaac Newton Institute for Mathematical Sciences and

N M Rothschild & Sons Rothschild & Co SCA is a multinational private and alternative assets investor, headquartered in Paris, France and London, United Kingdom. It is the flagship of the Rothschild banking group controlled by the British and French branches of the Rot ...

Professor of Mathematical Sciences at the

. In 2016 he was succeeded as director by Professor David Abrahams. His research interests include

mathematical analysis Analysis is the branch of mathematics dealing with continuous functions, limit (mathematics), limits, and related theories, such as Derivative, differentiation, Integral, integration, measure (mathematics), measure, infinite sequences, series ( ...

and nonlinear partial differential equations with particular interest in the rigorous theory of steady water waves. In 1978, he proved

George Gabriel Stokes Sir George Gabriel Stokes, 1st Baronet, (; 13 August 1819 – 1 February 1903) was an Irish mathematician and physicist. Born in County Sligo, Ireland, Stokes spent his entire career at the University of Cambridge, where he served as the Lucasi ...

' conjecture on the existence of

gravity wave In fluid dynamics, gravity waves are waves in a fluid medium or at the interface between two media when the force of gravity or buoyancy tries to restore equilibrium. An example of such an interface is that between the atmosphere and the oc ...

s of maximum height on deep water, a previously open problem in mathematical

hydrodynamics In physics, physical chemistry and engineering, fluid dynamics is a subdiscipline of fluid mechanics that describes the flow of fluids – liquids and gases. It has several subdisciplines, including (the study of air and other gases in ...

which dated back to the 19th century.

Awards and honours

He was elected

Fellow of the Royal Society Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the Fellows of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural science, natural knowledge, incl ...

(FRS) in 1999, One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from the royalsociety.org website where: and 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) in 2003. He was awarded the London Mathematical Society's

Senior Berwick Prize The Berwick Prize and Senior Berwick Prize are two prizes 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 Stat ...

in 2000; and the Royal Society's

Sylvester Medal The Sylvester Medal is a bronze medal awarded by the Royal Society for the encouragement of mathematical research, and accompanied by a £1,000 prize. It was named in honour of James Joseph Sylvester, the Savilian chair of geometry, Savilian Prof ...

in 2012. He is an Honorary Fellow of

University College London University College London (Trade name, branded as UCL) is a Public university, public research university in London, England. It is a Member institutions of the University of London, member institution of the Federal university, federal Uni ...

and was a

Fellow A fellow is a title and form of address for distinguished, learned, or skilled individuals in academia, medicine, research, and industry. The exact meaning of the term differs in each field. In learned society, learned or professional society, p ...

of St John's College, Cambridge October 2011 – September 2016.

References

1949 births Living people 20th-century mathematicians from Northern Ireland 21st-century mathematicians from Northern Ireland Academics of the University of Bath Fellows of St John's College, Cambridge Fellows of the Royal Society Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Mathematical analysts Scientists from Derry (city) People educated at St Columb's College Alumni of Queen's University Belfast {{Ireland-scientist-stub