Frank Bonsall

Frank Featherstone Bonsall FRS (31 March 1920 Crouch End, London – 22 February 2011 Harrogate) was a British mathematician.[1]

Life

Bonsall was born on 31 March 1920, the youngest son of Wilfred C Bonsall and Sarah Frank. His older brother was Arthur Bonsall.[2] He graduated from Bishop's Stortford College in 1938, and studied at Merton College, Oxford.[3] He served in World War II, in the Corps of Royal Engineers, and in India from 1944 to 1946.[4]

He married Gillian Patrick, in 1947.[3] He lectured at the University of Edinburgh from 1947-1948; was Visiting Associate Professor at Oklahoma State University from 1950-51; taught at Newcastle University, with Werner Wolfgang Rogosinski in the 1950s; was visiting professor at Yale University; and taught at the University of Edinburgh, from 1963 to 1984.[5] In 1966, he was awarded the London Mathematical Society's Berwick Prize. Despite not himself having a PhD, Bonsall supervised many PhD candidates[6] who knew him affectionately as "FFB". After his retirement, Bonsall and his wife moved to Harrogate.

Bonsall and his wife were keen hill-walkers.[7] He wrote two articles for The Scottish Mountaineering Club on the definition of a Munro.

Works

References

  1. ↑ http://www.heraldscotland.com/comment/obituaries/frank-bonsall-1.1094739
  2. ↑ Obituary
  3. 1 2 Levens, R.G.C., ed. (1964). Merton College Register 1900-1964. Oxford: Basil Blackwell. p. 290.
  4. ↑ http://www.gap-system.org/~history/Biographies/Bonsall.html
  5. ↑ Alastair Gillespie (4 April 2011). "Professor Frank Bonsall: Leading mathematician of the post-war years who led research into functional analysis". The Independent.
  6. ↑ The Mathematics Genealogy Project
  7. ↑ Royal Society of Edinburgh obituary
  8. ↑ Rickart, C. E. (1975). "Review: Complete normed algebras by F. F. Bonsall and J. Duncan" (PDF). Bull. Amer. Math. Soc. 81, Part 1 (3): 514–522. doi:10.1090/s0002-9904-1975-13727-x.
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