Samuel Newby Curle

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". ...

(1930-1989) was a British mathematician. He served as Professor of Applied Mathematics at

St Andrews University The University of St Andrews (, ; abbreviated as St And in post-nominals) is a public university in St Andrews, Scotland. It is the oldest of the four ancient universities of Scotland and, following the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, t ...

from 1967 until 1989. St Andrews University created the Curle Lecture in his memory.

Life

He was born in

Sunderland Sunderland () is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. It is a port at the mouth of the River Wear on the North Sea, approximately south-east of Newcastle upon Tyne. It is the most p ...

County Durham County Durham, officially simply Durham, is a ceremonial county in North East England.UK General Acts 1997 c. 23Lieutenancies Act 1997 Schedule 1(3). From legislation.gov.uk, retrieved 6 April 2022. The county borders Northumberland and Tyne an ...

, on 18 June 1930 the son of Samuel Curle and his wife, Edith Newby Holmes. He attended Barnes School in Sunderland and then Bede Grammar School (now Sunderland College). He then attended

Manchester University The University of Manchester is a public university, public research university in Manchester, England. The main campus is south of Manchester city centre, Manchester City Centre on Wilmslow Road, Oxford Road. The University of Manchester is c ...

graduating BSc in 1951 and MSc in 1952. He received a PhD in 1955. In 1954 he began working at the National Physical Laboratory then in 1961 moved to 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 ...

as a Reader in Mathematics. In 1967 he was given the Gregory Chair of Mathematics at

. 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 1977. His proposers were Andrew G Mackie, Norrie Everitt, Douglas Samuel Jones and Donald C Pack. He died of heart disease on 27 June 1989 in

Settle, North Yorkshire Settle is a market town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in North Yorkshire, England. Historic counties of England, Historically in the West Riding of Yorkshire, the town had a population of 2,421 in the 2001 United Kingdom census, 20 ...

in England, and was buried in

Kirkcaldy Kirkcaldy ( ; ; ) is a town and former royal burgh in Fife, on the east coast of Scotland. It is about north of Edinburgh and south-southwest of Dundee. The town had a recorded population of 49,460 in 2011, making it Fife's second-largest s ...

Fife Fife ( , ; ; ) is a council areas of Scotland, council area and lieutenancy areas of Scotland, lieutenancy area in Scotland. A peninsula, it is bordered by the Firth of Tay to the north, the North Sea to the east, the Firth of Forth to the s ...

Family

In 1956 he married Shirley Kingsford Campion.

The Curle Lecture

In 2006 St Andrews University instituted the Curle Lecture in his memory. This is a biennial lecture on an entertaining way of presenting mathematical concepts. The first lecture 1089 and All That was given by Dr David Acheson of

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 ...

Publications

*''The Laminar Boundary Layer Equations'' (1962) reprinted 1965

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Curle, Samuel Newby 1930 births 1989 deaths Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Alumni of the University of Manchester Academics of the University of St Andrews People educated at Bede Grammar School for Boys