John Toland (mathematician)

John Toland
Born (1949-04-28) 28 April 1949 (age 75)
Alma materQueen's University Belfast
University of Sussex
Awards
Scientific career
ThesisTopological Methods for Nonlinear Eigenvalue Problems (1973)
Doctoral advisorCharles A. Stuart[1]
Websitewww.newton.ac.uk/about/history/toland

John Francis Toland (born 28 April 1949 in Derry)[2] 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.

Education

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Toland was educated at St Columb's College in Derry and Queen's University Belfast where he was awarded a Bachelor of Science degree in 1970.[2] He completed postgraduate study at the University of Sussex where he was awarded a PhD in 1973[3] for research on topological methods for nonlinear eigenvalue problems supervised by Charles A. Stuart.[1]

Career and research

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From 1982 to 2011 he was Professor of Mathematics at the University of Bath[4] 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.[5][6] In 2011 he succeeded Sir David Wallace as Director of the Isaac Newton Institute for Mathematical Sciences and N M Rothschild & Sons Professor of Mathematical Sciences at the University of Cambridge.[7] In 2016 he was succeeded as Director by Professor David Abrahams.[8][1] His research interests include mathematical analysis and nonlinear partial differential equations with particular interest in the rigorous theory of steady water waves. In 1978, he proved George Gabriel Stokes' conjecture on the existence of gravity waves of maximum height on deep water, a previously open problem in mathematical hydrodynamics which dated back to the 19th century.[9][10]

Awards and honours

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He was elected Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 1999,[11] and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE) in 2003.[citation needed] He was awarded the London Mathematical Society's Senior Berwick Prize in 2000;[12] and the Royal Society's Sylvester Medal in 2012.[13]

He is an Honorary Fellow of University College London[14] and was a Fellow of St John's College, Cambridge October 2011 – September 2016.[4]

References

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  1. ^ a b c John Toland at the Mathematics Genealogy Project
  2. ^ a b "TOLAND, Prof. John Francis". Who's Who. Vol. 2000 (online Oxford University Press ed.). Oxford: A & C Black. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  3. ^ Toland, John Francis (1973). Topological Methods for Nonlinear Eigenvalue Problems (PhD thesis). University of Sussex. OCLC 500579955.
  4. ^ a b "J F Toland's home page". bath.ac.uk. Bath: University of Bath. Archived from the original on 7 March 2014.
  5. ^ "Management Structure". ICMS. Archived from the original on 3 January 2007. Retrieved 19 September 2007.
  6. ^ "Officers and Council". LMS. Retrieved 19 September 2007.
  7. ^ "Professor John Toland FRS FRSE". Isaac Newton Institute for Mathematical Sciences. Isaac Newton Institute. Archived from the original on 2 July 2012. Retrieved 22 August 2011.
  8. ^ "Professor David Abrahams". newton.ac.uk.
  9. ^ Toland, J. F. (1978). "On the Existence of a Wave of Greatest Height and Stokes's Conjecture". Proceedings of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences. 363 (1715): 469–485. Bibcode:1978RSPSA.363..469T. doi:10.1098/rspa.1978.0178. S2CID 120444295.
  10. ^ Petrunic, Josipa. "George Gabriel Stokes". Gifford Lecture Series. Templeton Foundation Press. Retrieved 24 September 2007.
  11. ^ Anon (1999). "Professor John Toland FRS". London: royalsociety.org. Archived from the original on 17 November 2015. One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from the royalsociety.org website where:

    "All text published under the heading 'Biography' on Fellow profile pages is available under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License." --"Royal Society Terms, conditions and policies". Archived from the original on 25 September 2015. Retrieved 9 March 2016.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)

  12. ^ "Citation for John Francis Toland". LMS. 2000. Archived from the original on 26 October 2005. Retrieved 19 September 2007.
  13. ^ "Sylvester Medal". Royal Society.
  14. ^ Tel: +4420 7679 2000, University College London-Gower Street- London- WC1E 6BT. "Honorary Fellows of UCL". www.ucl.ac.uk. Archived from the original on 20 November 2016. Retrieved 28 January 2019.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)