Ralph Duncan James (8 February 1909 – 19 May 1979) was a Canadianmathematician working onnumber theory andmathematical analysis.
Born inLiverpool, England, James moved with his parents toVancouver,British Columbia when he was 10 years old. After graduating fromhigh school, James attendedUniversity of British Columbia. After graduating, he continued inmathematics, writing a master’s thesis onTangential Coordinates. Proceeding toUniversity of Chicago, he studiednumber theory andWaring's problem underL. E. Dickson. In 1932 he was a awarded a Ph.D. on the strength of his dissertationAnalytical Investigations of Waring's Theorem. He continued post-graduate study, first withE. T. Bell atCalifornia Institute of Technology, then in 1934 withG. H. Hardy atCambridge University. He published in theTransactions of the American Mathematical Society and extended some work ofViggo Brun in 1938.
James was aprofessor of mathematics atUniversity of California, Berkeley from 1934 to 1939. He was then called toUniversity of Saskatchewan where he became head of the mathematics department.[1] In 1943 he began his long tenure atUniversity of British Columbia, becoming head of the department in 1948. James made contributions to the theory of thePerron integral and to solution ofGoldbach's conjecture.
When theInternational Congress of Mathematicians convened inVancouver in 1974, the four volumes of theProceedings of the congress were edited by Ralph D. James.[2]
He died on 19 May 1979 onSalt Spring Island in British Columbia.[3]
Since 1978, theCanadian Mathematical Society have awarded theCoxeter–James Prize in his honor.
Ralph Duncan James published the following papers in the course of his career:
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