E. T. Whittaker

Edmund Whittaker
A 1933 portrait of Whittaker by Arthur Trevor Haddon titled Sir Edmund Taylor Whittaker
Born(1873-10-24)24 October 1873
Died24 March 1956(1956-03-24) (aged 82)
NationalityEnglish
Alma materTrinity College, Cambridge
Known for
SpouseMary Ferguson Macnaghten Boyd
Awards
Scientific career
Fields
Institutions
Academic advisors
Doctoral students
Other notable students

Sir Edmund Taylor Whittaker FRS FRSE (24 October 1873 – 24 March 1956) was a British mathematician, physicist, and historian of science. Whittaker was a leading mathematical scholar of the early 20th century who contributed widely to applied mathematics and was renowned for his research in mathematical physics and numerical analysis, including the theory of special functions, along with his contributions to astronomy, celestial mechanics, the history of physics, and digital signal processing.

Among the most influential publications in Whittaker's bibliography, he authored several popular reference works in mathematics, physics, and the history of science, including A Course of Modern Analysis (better known as Whittaker and Watson), Analytical Dynamics of Particles and Rigid Bodies, and A History of the Theories of Aether and Electricity. Whittaker is also remembered for his role in the relativity priority dispute, as he credited Henri Poincaré and Hendrik Lorentz with developing special relativity in the second volume of his History, a dispute which has lasted several decades, though scientific consensus has remained with Einstein. Whittaker served as the Royal Astronomer of Ireland early in his career, a position he held from 1906 through 1912, before moving on to the chair of mathematics at the University of Edinburgh for the next three decades and, towards the end of his career, received the Copley Medal and was knighted. The School of Mathematics of the University of Edinburgh holds The Whittaker Colloquium, a yearly lecture, in his honour and the Edinburgh Mathematical Society promotes an outstanding young Scottish mathematician once every four years with the Sir Edmund Whittaker Memorial Prize, also given in his honour.

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference Temple299 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ a b Temple 1956, p. 300
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  4. ^ a b c d Cite error: The named reference Temple301 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ Martin 1958, pp. 6–9
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Cite error: The named reference mathgene was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Martin 1958, pp. 2–3