Samuel Beatty | |
|---|---|
| 21stChancellor of the University of Toronto | |
| In office 1953 (1953) – 1959 (1959) | |
| President | Sidney Earle Smith Claude Bissell |
| Preceded by | Vincent Massey |
| Succeeded by | François Charles Archile Jeanneret |
| 7thDean of the University of Toronto Faculty of Arts | |
| In office 1936 (1936) – 1952 (1952) | |
| Preceded by | Francis Barclay Allan |
| Succeeded by | Moffat St Andrew Woodside |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 1881 (1881) |
| Died | 1970 (1971) |
Samuel BeattyFRSC (1881–1970) wasdean of theFaculty of Mathematics at theUniversity of Toronto, taking the position in 1934, and dean of theFaculty of Arts from 1936 to 1952.
Beatty was born in 1881. In 1915, he graduated from theUniversity of Toronto with aPhD and a dissertation entitledExtensions of Results Concerning the Derivatives of an Algebraic Function of a Complex Variable, with the help of his adviser,John Charles Fields.[1] He was the first person to receive a PhD in mathematics from a Canadian university.[2] In 1925 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.[3] In 1926, he published a problem in theAmerican Mathematical Monthly, which formed the genesis for theBeatty sequence.[2]
Beatty wasdean of theFaculty of Mathematics at theUniversity of Toronto, taking the position in 1934.[4] The famous mathematicianRichard Brauer was recruited by Beatty in 1935.[5] He invitedHarold Scott MacDonald Coxeter to the University of Toronto with a position as an assistant professor, which Coxeter took; he remained in Toronto for the rest of his life.[6] In 1936, he was appointed the 7th dean of theFaculty of Arts, a position which he held until 1952.[7] In June 1939, he was one of the founding members of the Committee of Teaching Staff. Beatty was appointed the 21stChancellor of the University of Toronto in 1953, holding the position until 1959. He was associated with the university from 1911 to 1952, and a scholarship was established in his honor. He died in 1970.[4]
In a very real sense he guided Canadian mathematics from the isolation of the 19th century to a significant role in the 20th century.[3]
In an era when extremely few women received PhDs in mathematics,[8][3] Beatty supervised the mathematical PhDs of Mary Fisher andMuriel Kennett Wales.[1]
Nobel Prize in Chemistry winnerWalter Kohn, a student at the university while Beatty was a dean, expressed his appreciation in 1998 to the dean when accepting the prize for his development of thedensity functional theory. In 1942, when Kohn could not access the university's chemistry buildings duringWorld War II because of his German nationality, Beatty had helped him to enroll in the Mathematics Department at the university.[4]
Beatty was one of the founders of the Canadian Mathematical Congress and was elected to serve as the first president of the congress in 1945.[9] Under his presidency, the Canadian Mathematical Congress began to promote mathematical development in Canada. Beatty served as the president of the Canadian Mathematical Congress until 1978 at which point the congress was renamed the Canadian Mathematical Society to avoid further confusion with the quadrennial mathematical congresses.[10]
Overview of the Canadian Mathematical Societyhttp://cms.math.ca/Docs/cms-eng.html
| Academic offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Chancellor of theUniversity of Toronto 1953–1959 | Succeeded by |
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Academics | |
| People | |
| Other | |
