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Morris Birkbeck Pell (31 March 1827, in Albion, Illinois, USA – 7 May 1879, in Glebe, New South Wales, Australia) was an American-Australian mathematician, academic, lawyer and actuary.〔http://adbonline.anu.edu.au/biogs/A050475b.htm〕 He was the inaugural Professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy at the University of Sydney from 1852 until 1877, not long before his death. He was for many years a member of the University Senate, and councillor and secretary of the Royal Society of New South Wales. Pell's mother Eliza (1797-1880) was a daughter of Morris Birkbeck (1764-1825), the English agricultural innovator, social reformer and antislavery campaigner. In 1817-18 Birkbeck, with George Flower, founded a utopian colony, the English Settlement, in the Illinois Territory of the United States, and laid out the town of Albion, Illinois, where Pell was born. Eliza Birkbeck married Gilbert Titus Pell (1796-1860), who came from a prominent family of New York politicians. Gilbert Pell served as a representative in the Illinois legislature, and in the 1850s was appointed United States envoy to Mexico. He was descended from Sir John Pell (1643-1702), Lord of Pelham Manor, New York, who was the son of English mathematician Dr. John Pell, and nephew and heir of early American pioneer and settler Thomas Pell. Eliza Birkbeck Pell became estranged from her husband, and eventually returned to England with her son Morris. In 1849 Pell graduated as Senior Wrangler in mathematics at Cambridge University, a position once regarded as "the greatest intellectual achievement attainable in Britain." In 1852, when he was just 24 years old, and following in the footsteps of his illustrious ancestor Dr. John Pell (1611-1685), he was chosen from twenty-six candidates to become the first Professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy at the newly opened University of Sydney, in the British colony of New South Wales (Australia).〔 He was one of the University's three foundation professors. Professor Pell gave the first lecture in Mathematics on 13 October 1852, two days after the University's inauguration, to all 24 students of the University. One of them, William Windeyer, later to become Chancellor of the University, wrote in his diary: "Went to a lecture at 10 with Mr Pell, who amused as well as instructed, think I shall like him ...".〔http://www.maths.usyd.edu.au/u/About/〕 In 1854, in evidence to a New South Wales Legislative Council select committee on education, Pell advocated the opening of a secular grammar school. In 1859 he testified to the New South Wales Legislative Assembly select committees on the Sydney Grammar School and the University of Sydney, regarding the composition of the University Senate, the adverse effect of clergy on enrolments, the value of liberal studies in the education of businessmen and squatters, and the beneficial effect of the university on secondary education. His evidence resulted in ex-officio membership of the University Senate for professors. He was a member of the Senate from 1861 to 1877 and after resignation was re-elected to the senate in 1878 by members of convocation.〔 Pell was a member of the Australian Philosophical Society from 1856 and served on its council in 1858. Subsequently Queen Victoria granted Royal Assent to the Society and it was renamed the Royal Society of New South Wales. Pell was a member and its secretary from 1867, and a member of its council from 1869. For many years almost crippled by an injury to his spine, Pell resigned in mid-1877 as professor of mathematics at Sydney University, on a pension of £412 10s. On 7 May 1879, aged 52, he died of "progressive paralysis" (see Motor neuron disease) and was buried in the Balmain Cemetery in Sydney. He was survived by his estranged wife Julia (née Rusden), five sons and three daughters. ==References== 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「Morris Birkbeck Pell」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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