Thomas Murray MacRobert
{{Short description|Scottish mathematician}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2021}}
Thomas Murray MacRobert {{Post-nominals|post-noms=FRSE}} (4 April 1884, in Dreghorn, Ayrshire – 1 November 1962, in Glasgow) was a Scottish mathematician. He became professor of mathematics at the University of Glasgow and introduced the MacRobert E function, a generalisation of the generalised hypergeometric series.
Life
He was born on 4 April 1884 in the manse at Dreghorn, Ayrshire in south-west Scotland, the son of Rev Thomas MacRobert and his wife, Isabella Edgely Fisher. He was educated at Irvine Royal Academy with his identical twin brother, Alexander,{{Cite web |title=THOMAS MURRAY MACROBERT |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S2040618500034742 |access-date=11 March 2025 |website=www.cambridge.org}} then studied divinity at Glasgow University but transferred to study mathematics and natural philosophy (physics), graduating in 1905. He then took a second degree at Trinity College, Cambridge.{{Cite web |url=http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/history/Biographies/MacRobert.html |title=MacRobert biography |access-date=2 August 2017 |archive-date=7 August 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120807144056/http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/history/Biographies/MacRobert.html |url-status=dead }}
In 1910 he joined the staff of Glasgow University as an assistant to Professor Gibson, lecturing in mathematics.
In the First World War he served in the Royal Garrison Artillery and saw active service in France.
In 1921 he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. His proposers were Andrew Gray, George Alexander Gibson, James Gordon Gray and Robert Alexander Houston.{{cite book|title=Biographical Index of Former Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 1783 – 2002|date=July 2006|publisher=The Royal Society of Edinburgh|isbn=0-902-198-84-X|url=https://www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/biographical_index/fells_indexp2.pdf|access-date=2 August 2017|archive-date=4 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304074135/https://www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/biographical_index/fells_indexp2.pdf|url-status=dead}} He was President of the Edinburgh Mathematical Society 1921/22.{{Cite web |url=http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/history/Biographies/MacRobert.html |title=MacRobert biography |access-date=2 August 2017 |archive-date=7 August 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120807144056/http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/history/Biographies/MacRobert.html |url-status=dead }} He resigned from the RSE in 1940.
Glasgow University granted him an honorary doctorate (LLD) in 1955.
He retired in 1954 and died in Glasgow on 1 November 1962.
Family
In 1914, before going to war, he married Violet McIlwraith; they initially lived in a flat in North Kelvinside in Glasgow. They had three children: Violet, Tom and Alexander. He was a member of the Glasgow temperance movement and enjoyed hill-walking.
Artistic recognition
Publications
- {{cite journal |last1=MacRobert |first1=Thomas M |title=On the sufficiency of the condition for a limit |journal=Mathematical Notes |date=1913 |volume=12 |pages=141–142 |doi=10.1017/S1757748900001109 |url=https://archive.org/details/paper-doi-10_1017_s1757748900001109|doi-access=free }}
- [https://archive.org/details/functionsofcompl00macruoft Functions of a Complex Variable] (1917)
- Spherical Harmonics (1927)
- Trigonometry (1938)
- Higher Trigonometry (1943)
- Spherical Trigonometry (1946)
- [https://archive.org/details/printed-books-victoria-and-albert-images A Short Introduction to Fine Typography] (1957)
References
{{reflist}}
- [http://www.universitystory.gla.ac.uk/biography/?id=WH2053&type=P Biography] of Thomas Murray MacRobert
- {{MacTutor|id=MacRobert}}
- {{Citation | last1=Rankin | first1=Robert A. | title=Thomas Murray MacRobert | doi=10.1112/jlms/s1-39.1.176 |mr=0160703 | year=1964 | journal=Journal of the London Mathematical Society |series=Second Series | issn=0024-6107 | volume=39 | pages=176–182| s2cid=122785089 }}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Macrobert, Thomas Murray}}
Category:Academics of the University of Glasgow
Category:British identical twins
Category:Alumni of the University of Glasgow
Category:Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge
Category:Royal Garrison Artillery officers
Category:Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh
Category:20th-century Scottish mathematicians
Category:British Army personnel of World War I
{{Scotland-academic-bio-stub}}
{{UK-mathematician-stub}}