E T Copson appointed Regius professor at St Andrews

In August 1950 The University of St Andrews appointed E T Copson to the Regius Chair of Mathematics to succeed H W Turnbull. The University issued the following Press release:

ST ANDREWS UNIVERSITY.
Professor E T Copson's Appointment.

Professor E T Copson, M.A. (Oxon.), D.Sc. (Edin.), F.R.S.E., has been appointed to the Regius Chair of Mathematics in the United College in the University of St Andrews in succession to Professor H W Turnbull, F.R.S., who retires at the end of September.

Professor Copson who is 48 years of age, is at present Professor of Mathematics in University College, Dundee. He was a scholar of St John's College, Oxford, from 1919 to 1922, and gained First Class Honours in Mathematical Moderations (1920) and Final Honour School of Mathematics (1922.) From 1922 to 1929 he held a lectureship in mathematics in the University of Edinburgh, during which time he graduated D.Sc., and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. In 1942 he received the Keith Prize of the Royal Society of Edinburgh for his researches in mathematics.

He left Edinburgh in 1929 to become Lecturer in Mathematics in the United College, St Andrews, where he remained until 1934 when he was appointed Assistant Professor in the Royal Naval College, Greenwich. A year later he became Professor or Mathematics at Dundee.

Professor Copson is very well known as a mathematician in Great Britain and overseas, and is the author of numerous works His best known work is a text-book on the "Theory of Functions of a Complex Variable," published in 1935, which is regarded as a standard textbook on the subject. He is joint author (with Professor Bevan B Baker) of "The Mathematical Theory of Huygens' Principle," published in 1939. Professor Copson has also written more than 30 papers on mathematical topics.

He has been a member of the principal Mathematical Societies in Britain and of other learned societies for many years. He has been a member of the Council of the Royal Society of Edinburgh since 1943, and has been one of its secretaries since 1945. He has taken an active part in university administration as warden of a students' residence, as Adviser of Studies, and as a member of the Council of University College, Dundee. He is at present one of the Senatus Assessors on the University Court, and has represented the university at conferences of the Senates and Courts of the Scottish Universities.

Last Updated November 2007