Frank Morley
{{short description|English–American mathematician (1860–1937)}}
{{for|his son, the American mathematician and publishing executive|Frank Vigor Morley}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=April 2024}}
{{Infobox scientist
| name = Frank Morley
| image = Frank Morley.jpg
| image_size =
| caption =
| birth_date = {{birth date|1860|9|9}}
| birth_place = Woodbridge, Suffolk, England
| death_date = {{death date and age|1937|10|17|1860|9|9}}
| death_place = Baltimore, Maryland
| nationality = English
| fields = Mathematics
| workplaces = Haverford College
Johns Hopkins University
| alma_mater = King's College, Cambridge
| doctoral_advisor =
| doctoral_students = Clara Latimer Bacon
Harry Bateman
Leonard Blumenthal
Walter B. Carver
Arthur Coble
Teresa Cohen
Aubrey E. Landry
Francis Murnaghan
Boyd Patterson
Mabel M. Young
| known_for = Morley's trisector theorem
| awards =
}}
Frank Morley (September 9, 1860 – October 17, 1937) was a leading mathematician, known mostly for his teaching and research in the fields of algebra and geometry. Among his mathematical accomplishments was the discovery and proof of the celebrated Morley's trisector theorem in elementary plane geometry.
He led 50 Ph.D. students, including Clara Latimer Bacon, to their degrees, and was said to be
:... one of the more striking figures of the relatively small group of men who initiated that development which, within his own lifetime, brought Mathematics in America from a minor position to its present place in the sun.{{cite journal | author = Coble, Arthur B.| year = 1938 | title = Frank Morley—In memoriam | url = http://projecteuclid.org/euclid.bams/1183500344 | journal = Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society | volume = 44 | issue = 3 | pages = 167–170 | doi=10.1090/s0002-9904-1938-06692-x| doi-access = free }}
Life
Morley was born in the town of Woodbridge in Suffolk, England. His parents were Elizabeth Muskett and Joseph Roberts Morley, Quakers who ran a china shop. After being educated at Woodbridge School, Morley went on to King's College, Cambridge (B.A., 1884).{{acad|id=MRLY879F|name=Morley, Frank}}
In 1887, Morley moved to Pennsylvania. He taught at Haverford College until 1900, when he became chairman of the mathematics department at Johns Hopkins University. His publications include Elementary Treatise on the Theory of Functions (1893), with James Harkness; and Introduction to the Theory of Analytic Functions (1898). In 1897, he was elected to the American Philosophical Society.{{Cite web |title=APS Member History |url=https://search.amphilsoc.org/memhist/search?creator=Frank+Morley&title=&subject=&subdiv=&mem=&year=&year-max=&dead=&keyword=&smode=advanced |access-date=2024-02-21 |website=search.amphilsoc.org}} He was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1917.{{Cite web |date=2023-02-09 |title=Frank Morley |url=https://www.amacad.org/person/frank-morley |access-date=2024-02-21 |website=American Academy of Arts & Sciences |language=en}} He was President of the American Mathematical Society from 1919 to 1920{{cite journal|author=Morley, Frank|journal=Bull. Amer. Math. Soc.|title=Pleasant Questions and Wonderful Effects. Presidential address delivered before the American Mathematical Society, December 28, 1920|volume=27|year=1921|pages=309–312|doi=10.1090/S0002-9904-1921-03427-6|doi-access=free}} and was the editor of the American Journal of Mathematics from 1900 to 1921. He was an invited speaker at the International Congress of Mathematicians in 1912 at Cambridge (England), in 1924 at Toronto, and in 1936 at Oslo.
In 1933 he and his son Frank Vigor Morley published the "stimulating volume" Inversive Geometry.{{cite journal|author=Snyder, Virgil|authorlink=Virgil Snyder|title=Review: Frank Morley and F. V. Morley, Inversive Geometry|journal=Bull. Amer. Math. Soc.|year=1934|volume=40|issue=5|pages=374–375|url=http://projecteuclid.org/euclid.bams/1183497418|doi=10.1090/s0002-9904-1934-05848-8|doi-access=free}}Henry Forder (1934) Review:Inversive Geometry, The Mathematical Gazette 18:127–9 The book develops complex numbers as a tool for geometry and function theory. Some non-standard terminology is used such as "base-circle" for unit circle and "turn" for a point on it.
He was a strong chess player and once beat world chess champion Emanuel Lasker in a game.
He died in Baltimore, Maryland, at age 77.
He had three sons: novelist Christopher Morley; Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist, journalist, and college president Felix Morley; and Frank Vigor Morley, also a mathematician.
Works
- 1893: (with James Harkness) [https://archive.org/details/treatiseontheory00harkuoft A treatise on the theory of functions] (New York: Macmillan){{cite journal|author=Maschke, H.|authorlink=Heinrich Maschke|title=Review: A Treatise on the Theory of Functions by J. Harkness and F. Morley|journal=Bull. Amer. Math. Soc.|year=1894|volume=3|issue=7|pages=155–167|url=https://www.ams.org/journals/bull/1894-03-07/S0002-9904-1894-00202-X/S0002-9904-1894-00202-X.pdf|doi=10.1090/s0002-9904-1894-00202-x|doi-access=free}}
- 1898: (with James Harkness) [https://archive.org/details/introductiontoth032100mbp Introduction to the Theory of Analytic Functions] (G.E.Stechert And Company){{cite journal|author=Bolza, Oskar|authorlink=Oskar Bolza|title=Review: Introduction to the Theory of Analytic Functions by J. Harkness and F. Morley|journal=Bull. Amer. Math. Soc.|year=1899|volume=6|issue=2|pages=63–74|url=https://www.ams.org/journals/bull/1899-06-02/S0002-9904-1899-00671-2/S0002-9904-1899-00671-2.pdf|doi=10.1090/s0002-9904-1899-00671-2|doi-access=free}}
- 1919: On the Lüroth Quartic Curve
- 1933: (with son Frank Vigor Morley) [http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=wu.89043164011;view=1up;seq=7 Inversive Geometry], Ginn & Co., now available from HathiTrust
See also
References
{{Reflist}}
- R.C. Archibald, A Semicentennial History of the American Mathematical Society (1888–1938), Chapter 15: The Presidents: #15 Morley 1919–20. pp. 194–201, includes bibliography of Morley's papers.
External links
- {{Internet Archive author |sname=Frank Morley |sopt=t}}
- {{MacTutor Biography|id=Morley}}
- {{mathgenealogy|name=Frank Morley|id=8158}}
- Clark Kimberling: [http://faculty.evansville.edu/ck6/bstud/morley.html Frank Morley (1860–1937) geometer].
{{AMS Presidents}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Morley, Frank}}
Category:19th-century British mathematicians
Category:19th-century American mathematicians
Category:20th-century American mathematicians
Category:British expatriates in the United States
Category:Johns Hopkins University faculty
Category:Haverford College faculty
Category:Presidents of the American Mathematical Society
Category:Alumni of King's College, Cambridge
Category:People educated at Woodbridge School