Derek Frank Lawden
Derek Frank Lawden was a New Zealand mathematician of English descent.Academic career
After doing mathematics at Cambridge University he served in the Royal Artillery and then lectured at the Royal Military College of Science and the College of Advanced Technology Birmingham, where he worked on rocket trajectories and space flight. In 1956 he moved to University of Canterbury as professor. In the 1960s he got a DSc from Cambridge, was appointed FRSNZ and won the Hector Medal. He return to the UK to University of Aston in 1967.
After the World War II, he was the first to register in the literature considerations about the use of gravity assist for space exploration.
