Beyer Professor of Applied Mathematics
The Beyer Chair of Applied Mathematics is an endowed professorial position in the School of Mathematics, University of Manchester, England. The endowment came from the will of the celebrated locomotive designer and founder of Beyer, Peacock and Company of Gorton, Manchester, Charles Frederick Beyer. He was the University's largest single donor to the University.
The first appointment in 1881 was of Arthur Schuster who held the position until 1888. After Schuster’s departure, the chair of Mathematics to which Horace Lamb had been appointed in 1885 became the Beyer Professorship of Mathematics and remained so until Lamb’s retirement in 1920. At this point an existing chair, of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy to which Sydney Chapman had been appointed in 1919, was renamed the Beyer Professorship of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy. After Chapman’s resignation, the Beyer title was applied to the chair of Applied Mathematics. There was no incumbent between 1937-1945.
Most of the holders of the post were elected as Fellows of the Royal Society, an honour bestowed on a small minority of UK mathematics professors. Lamb, Champman, Milne and Goldstein all received the Smith's Prize and indication of early career promise.
The other endowed chairs in mathematics at the University of Manchester are the Richardson Chair of Applied Mathematics, and the Fielden Chair of Pure Mathematics as well as the named Sir Horace Lamb Chair.
