Awards Polya Prize | Role Mathematician Name David Williams Notable students Chris Rogers | |
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Institutions University of StanfordUniversity of DurhamUniversity of CambridgeUniversity College of SwanseaUniversity of Bath Thesis Random time substitution in Markov chains (1962) Doctoral advisor D. G. Kendall and G. E. H. Reuter Doctoral students Martin BarlowMartin BaxterSimon HarrisChris Rogers Books Probability with martingales, Weighing the odds, Rekindling The Flame Of Christi, Diffusions - Markov processe, Projects in Conservation Similar People Chris Rogers, David George Kendall, Jorge Luis Borges, Voltaire, Martin T Barlow | ||
Academic advisor David George Kendall | ||
David Williams FRS is a Welsh mathematician who works in probability theory.
Contents
Biography
David Williams was born at Gorseinon, near Swansea, Wales, and educated at Gowerton Grammar School, winning a mathematics scholarship to Jesus College, Oxford, and went on to obtain a DPhil under the supervision of David George Kendall and Harry Gerd Edzard Reuter, with a thesis titled Random time substitution in Markov chains.
He held posts at the Stanford University (1962–63), University of Durham, University of Cambridge (1966–69), and at Swansea University (1969–85), where he was promoted to a personal chair in 1972.
In 1985 he was elected to the Professorship of Mathematical Statistics, University of Cambridge, where he remained until 1992, serving as Director of the Statistical Laboratory between 1987 and 1991. Following this, he held the Chair of Mathematical Sciences jointly with the Mathematics and Statistics Groups at the University of Bath.
In 1999 he returned to Swansea University, where he currently holds a Research Professorship.
Williams's research interests encompass Brownian motion, diffusions, Markov processes, martingales and Wiener–Hopf theory. Recognition for his work includes being elected Fellow of the Royal Society in 1984, where he was cited for his achievements on the construction problem for Markov chains and on path decompositions for Brownian motion, and being awarded the London Mathematical Society's Pólya Prize in 1994.
He is the author of Probability With Martingales and Weighing the Odds, and co-author (with L. C. G. Rogers) of both volumes of Diffusions, Markov Processes and Martingales.