Ian Sneddon


Prof Ian Naismith Sneddon FRS FRSE FIMA OBE was a Scottish mathematician who worked on analysis and applied mathematics.

Life

He was born in Glasgow on 8 December 1919 the son of Naismith Sneddon and his wife, Mary Ann Cameron. He was educated at Hyndland School in Glasgow.
He studied Mathematics and Physics at Glasgow University, graduating BSC then went to Cambridge University gaining an MA in 1941. From 1942 to 1945, in the Second World War, he served as a Scientific Officer to the Ministry of Supply. After the war he worked as a Research Officer for H H Wllls Laboratory at Bristol University. In 1946 he began lecturing in Natural Philosophy at Glasgow University.
In 1950 he received a professorship at University College, North Staffordshire. In 1956 he returned to Glasgow University as Professor of Mathematics.
In 1958 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. His proposers were Robert Alexander Rankin, Philip Ivor Dee, William Marshall Smart and Edward Copson. He won the Society's Makdougall-Brisbane Prize for the period 1956-58. In 1983 he was further elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of London.
He retired in 1985 and died in Glasgow on 4 November 2000.

Family

In 1943 he married Mary Campbell Macgregor.

Research

Sneddon's research was published widely including:
Sneddon received Honorary Doctorates from Warsaw University, Heriot-Watt University University of Hull and University of Strathclyde.