Ian Stewart (mathematician)

Ian Nicholas Stewart was a British mathematician and writer. He made math interesting and fun for many people. He was born on 24 September 1945. He became an Emeritus Professor of Mathematics at the University of Warwick in England.

Stewart was famous for writing popular-science books, textbooks, and science-fiction stories. He wanted to help everyone understand math better. His books were read all around the world.

He received many honors for his work. These included being a Fellow of the Royal Society FRS, a Chartered Mathematician CMath, and a Fellow of the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications FIMA. His writing made complex math ideas easier and more enjoyable to understand.

Education and early life

Ian Stewart was born in 1945 in Folkestone, England. While in the sixth form at Harvey Grammar School in Folkestone, he did very well in mathematics and was given a special challenge by his teacher. He earned a scholarship to study at the University of Cambridge at Churchill College, Cambridge. There, he studied the Mathematical Tripos and earned a first-class Bachelor of Arts degree in mathematics in 1966. He later studied at the University of Warwick, where he completed his PhD on Lie algebras in 1969.

Career and research

Ian Stewart became a professor at the University of Warwick after finishing his PhD. He made math easy and fun for everyone to understand. He wrote many articles and books about math. He had a column called "Mathematical Recreations" for Scientific American magazine. He also worked with famous authors to write science books based on the Discworld stories.

Stewart visited universities in Germany, New Zealand, and the United States. He wrote over 140 scientific papers. He also created an app about numbers to help people learn.

Publications

Ian Stewart wrote many books about math, science, and even some science fiction stories. His books help everyone understand big ideas in math.

He wrote books such as Does God Play Dice? The New Mathematics of Chaos, The Mathematics of Life, and In Pursuit of the Unknown: 17 Equations That Changed the World. He also wrote a fun series called Professor Stewart's Cabinet of Mathematical Curiosities and worked with famous authors on the Science of Discworld series.

Awards and honours

Ian Stewart received many awards for his work. In 1995, he won the Michael Faraday Medal. In 1997, he gave the Royal Institution Christmas Lecture named The Magical Maze. He became a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2001. In 2008, he was the first to get the Christopher Zeeman Medal from the London Mathematical Society and the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications for helping others learn about mathematics.

Personal life

Ian Stewart married Avril in 1970. They first met at a party at a house Avril was renting while she trained as a nurse. The couple has two sons. In his free time, Stewart enjoys many hobbies including science fiction, painting, playing the guitar, keeping fish, geology, Egyptology, and snorkelling.