Fields Mathematics Role Professor of mathematics | Name Ian Stewart | |
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Born Ian Nicholas Stewart 24 September 1945 (age 78) England ( 1945-09-24 ) Nominations Hugo Award for Best Related Work, Locus Award for Best First Novel Books The Science of Discworld, Professor Stewart's Cabinet o, Seventeen Equations that Chan, The Mathematics of Life, Does God Play Dice? The New Similar People | ||
Institutions University of Warwick | ||
How mathematicians think about patterns professor ian stewart
Ian Nicholas Stewart FRS (born 24 September 1945) is a British mathematician and a popular-science and science-fiction writer. He is Emeritus Professor of Mathematics at the University of Warwick, England.
Contents
- How mathematicians think about patterns professor ian stewart
- How mathematicians think about patterns professor ian stewart frs
- Biography
- Research and publications
- Science of Discworld series
- Textbooks
- Science fiction
- Awards and honours
- Personal life
- References
How mathematicians think about patterns professor ian stewart frs
Biography
Stewart was born in 1945 in England. While in the sixth form at school he came to the attention of the mathematics teacher. The teacher had Stewart sit mock A-level examinations without any preparation along with the upper-sixth students; Stewart was placed first in the examination. The teacher arranged for Stewart to be admitted to Cambridge on a scholarship to Churchill College, where he obtained a BA in mathematics. Stewart then went to the University of Warwick for his doctorate, on completion of which in 1969 he was offered an academic position at the university, where he presently teaches mathematics. He is well known for his popular expositions of mathematics and his contributions to catastrophe theory.
While at Warwick, Stewart edited the mathematical magazine Manifold. He also wrote a column called "Mathematical Recreations" for Scientific American magazine from 1991 to 2001. This followed the work of past columnists like Martin Gardner, Douglas Hofstadter, and A.K. Dewdney. Altogether, he wrote 96 columns for Scientific American, which were later reprinted in the books "Math Hysteria", "How to Cut a Cake: And Other Mathematical Conundrums" and "Cows in the Maze".
Stewart has held visiting academic positions in Germany (1974), New Zealand (1976), and the US (University of Connecticut 1977–78, University of Houston 1983–84).
Research and publications
Stewart has published more than 140 scientific papers, including a series of influential papers co-authored with Jim Collins on coupled oscillators and the symmetry of animal gaits.
Stewart has collaborated with Dr Jack Cohen and Terry Pratchett on four popular science books based on Pratchett's Discworld. In 1999 Terry Pratchett made both Jack Cohen and Professor Ian Stewart "Honorary Wizards of the Unseen University" at the same ceremony at which the University of Warwick gave Terry Pratchett an honorary degree.
In March 2014 Ian Stewart's iPad app, Incredible Numbers by Professor Ian Stewart, launched in the App Store. The app was produced in partnership with Profile Books and Touch Press.
Science of Discworld series
Textbooks
Science fiction
Awards and honours
In 1995 Stewart received the Michael Faraday Medal and in 1997 he gave the Royal Institution Christmas Lecture on The Magical Maze. He was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2001.
Stewart was the first recipient of the Christopher Zeeman Medal, awarded jointly by the LMS and the IMA for his work on promoting mathematics.
Personal life
Stewart married his wife, Avril, in 1970. They met at a party at a house that Avril was renting while she was trained as a nurse. They have two sons. He lists his recreations as science fiction, painting, guitar, keeping fish, geology, Egyptology and snorkelling.