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Edmund Taylor Whittaker FRS〔 FRSE (24 October 1873 – 24 March 1956) was an English mathematician who contributed widely to applied mathematics, mathematical physics and the theory of special functions. He had a particular interest in numerical analysis, but also worked on celestial mechanics and the history of physics. Near the end of his career he received the Copley Medal, the most prestigious honorary award in British science. The School of Mathematics of the University of Edinburgh holds The Whittaker Colloquium, a yearly lecture in his honour. ==Biography== Whittaker was born in Southport, in Lancashire. He was educated at Manchester Grammar School and Trinity College, Cambridge from 1892. He graduated as Second Wrangler in the examination in 1895 and also received the Tyson Medal for Mathematics and Astronomy. In 1896, Whittaker was elected as a fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, and remained at Cambridge as a teacher until 1906. Between 1906 and 1911 he was the Royal Astronomer of Ireland and professor of astronomy at Trinity College Dublin where he taught mathematical physics. In 1911 Whittaker became professor at the University of Edinburgh and remained there for the rest of his career. A classmate at Manchester Grammar School, Ernest Barker, with whom Edmund shared the office of prefect, later recalled his personality: :He had a gay, lively, bubbling spirit: he was ready for every prank: he survives in my memory as a natural actor; and I think he could also, on occasion, produce a merry poem.〔Ernest Barker (1953) ''Age and Youth'', p 280, Oxford University Press〕 Whittaker was a Christian and became a convert to the Roman Catholic Church (1930). In relation to that he was a member of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences from 1936 onward and was president of a Newman Society. Earlier at Cambridge in 1901 he married the daughter of a Presbyterian minister. They had five children, including the mathematician John Macnaghten Whittaker, (1905-1984) and his elder daughter, Beatrice, married E.T. Copson, who would later become Professor of Mathematics at St. Andrew's University.〔http://www.lms.ac.uk/newsletter/322/322_03.html〕 Whittaker wrote the biography of a famous Italian mathematician, Vito Volterra for the Royal Society in 1941. In 1954, he was awarded the Copley Medal by the Royal Society, their highest award, ''"for his distinguished contributions to both pure and applied mathematics and to theoretical physics"''. Back in 1931 Whittaker had received the Royal Society's Sylvester Medal ''"for his original contributions to both pure and applied mathematics"''. Whittaker died in Edinburgh, Scotland. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「E. T. Whittaker」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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