Person: Jackson, Frank
Frank Jackson was an English clergyman and mathematician who worked on basic hypergeometric series.
Mathematical Profile (Excerpt):
- Jackson received the award and entered Peterhouse in 1886 when only just sixteen years old.
- Considerably younger than his fellow students, Jackson did well to graduate as a Wrangler when he was awarded an A.B. in 1889.
- Being a Wrangler meant that his performance had been first class but Jackson was ranked lowest in the list of Wranglers and so had no real opportunity to continue his study of mathematics at Cambridge.
- Jackson now decided that he would enter the Church and he was ordained, becoming a Curate of Bemerton, Salisbury in 1896.
- Jackson, who was a Naval Instructor as well as a Chaplain, served on HMS Dido from 1898.
- The Boxer Rebellion was put down by 1901 and Jackson received the China Medal (1900) for his part, as did many other members of the crew of HMS Dido.
- Jackson served on HMS Dido until 1902 when he transferred to HMS Irresistible.
- There is a six-year gap in Jackson's publication record from 1897 to 1903, but with his move from HMS Dido to HMS Irresistible in 1902 he seems to have resumed his research career, sending three papers to journals with HMS Irresistible as his address.
- Jackson published 17 papers in the three years 1903, 1904 and 1905.
- Jackson was contemporaneous with James Rogers and even less appreciated for his work.
- Readers of this book will find many results due to Jackson and rightly conclude that he, indeed, is one of the founders of the subject.
- Jackson's most important papers on qqq-series are On q-definite integrals (1910), On basic double hypergeometric functions (1942) and Basic double hypergeometric functions (1944).
- In the first of these three papers what is now called the 'Jackson integral' appears.
- See also Jackson's papers On q-functions and a certain difference operator (1908), and q-Integration (1927).
- On 21 May 1919, Jackson was inducted as rector of Chester-le-Street, St Mary Parish.
- Several of Jackson's early papers were published by the London Mathematical Society but after 1905 he never published a paper with that Society.
- This little story tells us much about Jackson's character.
- The book has had a number of owners, but one of them was "F H Jackson" so we add to this biography a photo of his signature on this book .
Born 16 August 1870, Hull, England. Died 27 April 1960, Cookridge, Leeds, England.
View full biography at MacTutor
Tags relevant for this person:
Origin England
Thank you to the contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0! 
- Github:
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- non-Github:
- @J-J-O'Connor
- @E-F-Robertson
References
Adapted from other CC BY-SA 4.0 Sources:
- O’Connor, John J; Robertson, Edmund F: MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive
