Person: Stewartson, Keith
Keith Stewartson was an English mathematician who worked in the theory of fluid flow.
Mathematical Profile (Excerpt):
- Stewartson was an undergraduate at St Catharine's College, entering in 1942, but by that time special regulations for the Mathematical Tripos had been introduced because of the War.
- It was in 1943 that Stewartson had attended a lecture given at Cambridge by Brodetsky on Aeronautical mathematics.
- By the time Stewartson arrived, however, activity at Orford Ness was on the decrease and after a while he was moved to the Guided Projectiles Establishment at Westcott, Buckinghamshire.
- It was at Westcott that Stewartson became involved in studying compressible fluid flow problems, and he worked there until 1946 when he returned to Cambridge.
- The results Stewartson obtained were impressive, and he published his first paper Correlated incompressible and compressible boundary layers in the Proceedings of the Royal Society in 1949.
- Stewartson found time while working for his doctorate to become enthusiastic about rowing.
- Shortly after the marriage, Keith and Jean Stewartson set sail for the United States where they spent a year at the California Institute of Technology.
- This was the first of many visits which Stewartson made to the United States, Israel, and Australia.
- In 1958 Stewartson was appointed to a chair at the new Durham Colleges division of University of Durham.
- But artistic pursuits were not neglected, and Keith found great pleasure in playing the works of his favourite composers (Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert) on his fine baby-grand piano.
- In 1963 Stewartson and Lighthill played major roles in the founding of the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications.
- It formally existed from April 1964 with Lighthill as President and Stewartson as Vice-President, and Stewartson played a large role in setting the direction for the new body.
- In London Stewartson made his home in Golders Green.
- Stewartson studied rotating fluid flows, shear layers, magnetohydrodynamics, the triple-deck theory, and flow at both high and low Reynolds numbers.
- Stewartson received many honours.
- Stewartson first had a health problem in 1974 when he suffered a small heart attack.
Born 20 September 1925, Barnsley, Yorkshire, England. Died 7 May 1983, London, England.
View full biography at MacTutor
Tags relevant for this person:
Origin England
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- @J-J-O'Connor
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References
Adapted from other CC BY-SA 4.0 Sources:
- O’Connor, John J; Robertson, Edmund F: MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive
