London Mathematical Society Hirst , Thomas Archer , 1830-1892 , mathematician

London Mathematical Society Hirst , Thomas Archer , 1830-1892 , mathematician

The London Mathematical Society (LMS) was founded as the University College Mathematical Society in 1865, for the promotion and extension of mathematical knowledge. It was granted a royal charter in 1965. In spite of its name, its reach extends beyond London as a national learned society for mathematics. Members include c1,500 academic mathematicians in the UK and c1,000 members overseas. Its affairs are managed by an elected Council and Officers. It undertakes various publications, holds regular meetings, conferences and symposia, and offers financial support to various mathematical activities.

Thomas Archer Hirst: born at Heckmondwike, Yorkshire, 1830; entered the West Riding proprietary school, Wakefield, 1840; articled to a Halifax land agent and surveyor, 1846; went to Marburg to study mathematics, physics and chemistry, 1849; PhD; spent a short time at Göttingen; studied in Berlin; lecturer in mathematics and natural philosophy at Queenwood College, Hampshire, 1853-1856; lived in Paris, 1857-1858; lived in Rome, 1858-1859; appointed mathematical master at University College School, 1860; Fellow of the Royal Society, 1861; one of the founders of the LMS, 1865; a member of its Council; Professor of Physics, University College London, 1865; succeeded Augustus De Morgan as Professor of Pure Mathematics, 1866; Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society, 1866; general secretary of the British Association, 1866-1870; resigned his chair to become assistant registrar in the University of London, 1870; President of the newly-founded Association for the Improvement of Geometrical Teaching, 1871-1878; President of the LMS, 1872-1874; director of naval studies at the newly-founded Royal Naval College, Greenwich, 1873-1883; Fellow of the University of London, 1882; awarded a royal medal by the Royal Society, 1883; retired, 1883; honorary member of the Cambridge Philosophical Society and of several foreign scientific institutions; author of papers on mathematical physics and, from 1861, pure geometry; his research included work on the correlation of planes and the correlation of space of three dimensions; died in London, 1892. Publications: papers in the LMS Proceedings and the Royal Society's Philosophical Transactions; preface to Richard P Wright's Elements of Plane Geometry (London, 1868); 'On the Complexes generated by two Correlative Planes' in collected mathematical papers In Memoriam D Chelini, ed Luigi Cremona (Milan, 1881); edited The Mechanical Theory of Heat (London, 1867), translated from Rudolf Julius Emmanuel Clausius's German.