Clive W. Kilmister


Clive W. Kilmister was a British mathematician who specialised in the mathematical foundations of Physics, especially Quantum Mechanics and Relativity and published widely in these fields. He was one of the discoverers of the Combinatorial Hierarchy, along with A. F. Parker-Rhodes, E. W. Bastin, and J.C.Amson. He was strongly influenced by astrophysicist Arthur Eddington and was well known for his elaboration and elucidation of Eddington's Fundamental theory.
Kilmister attended Queen Mary College London for both his under- and postgraduate degrees. His 1950 PhD on The Use of Quaternions in Wave-Tensor Calculus related to Eddington's work, and was supervised by cosmologist George C. McVittie, who was one of Eddington's students. His own students included Brian Tupper, Samuel Edgar, and Tony Crilly.
Kilmister was elected as a member of the London Mathematical Society during his doctoral studies. Upon graduation, he began his career as an Assistant Lecturer in the Mathematics Department of King's College in 1950. The entirety of his academic career was spent at King's. In 1954, Kilmister founded the King's Gravitational Theory Group, in concert with Hermann Bondi and Felix Pirani, which focused on Einstein's theory of general relativity. At retirement, Kilmister was both a Professor of Mathematics and Head of the King's College Mathematics Department.

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