G. N. Watson facts for kids

George Neville Watson (born January 31, 1886 – died February 2, 1965) was a smart English mathematician. He used a special area of math called complex analysis to study special functions. He is famous for a math textbook called "Whittaker and Watson". He helped write the second edition of this book in 1915. In 1918, he also proved an important math rule known as Watson's lemma. This rule is used in many ways to understand how some math problems behave.

Early Life and Education

George Neville Watson was born on January 31, 1886. His birthplace was a town called Westward Ho! in Devon, England. His father, George Wentworth Watson, was a school teacher and also studied family histories. His mother was Mary Justina Griffith.

George went to St Paul's School in London. There, he learned from a teacher named F. S. Macaulay. After school, he went to Trinity College, Cambridge to study Mathematics. He met another famous mathematician, E. T. Whittaker, there.

Teaching and Research

From 1914 to 1918, Watson taught math at University College, London. In 1918, he became a Professor of Pure Mathematics. This was at the University of Birmingham. He stayed in this important role until 1951.

The University of Birmingham gave him an honorary degree in 1919. This means they recognized his great work in math. He was also the President of the London Mathematical Society from 1933 to 1935. This is a big honor for a mathematician.

George Neville Watson passed away on February 2, 1965. He died in Leamington Spa, England.

Important Math Books and Discoveries

Watson wrote a very important book in 1922. It was called Treatise on the theory of Bessel functions. This book became a classic, especially for understanding how Bessel functions behave in certain situations.

He spent many years studying the math ideas of a brilliant Indian mathematician named Ramanujan. Watson worked on Ramanujan's modular equations and mock theta functions. He even helped look after Ramanujan's lost notebook. This notebook contained many of Ramanujan's amazing discoveries.

In the late 1920s, G. N. Watson and B. M. Wilson started editing Ramanujan's notebooks. They focused on the second notebook. Wilson worked on some chapters, and Watson worked on others. Wilson sadly passed away in 1935. Watson continued to write over 30 papers based on these notebooks. His interest in them continued for many years.

Ramanujan found many more modular equations than all mathematicians before him. Watson was able to prove most of these equations. Another mathematician, Bruce C. Berndt, later finished the work that Watson and Wilson started. Much of Berndt's book, Ramanujan's Notebooks, Part 3 (1998), is based on Watson's earlier work.

Watson was also interested in solving special types of math problems. These included certain quintic equations. He also came up with a math rule called Watson's quintuple product identity.

Awards and Recognition

In 1919, George Neville Watson was chosen as a Fellow of the Royal Society. This is a very high honor for scientists in the United Kingdom. In 1946, he received the Sylvester Medal from the Royal Society. He was also the president of the London Mathematical Society from 1933 to 1935.

Sometimes, people confuse him with other mathematicians. These include G. L. Watson and G. Watson.

Family Life

In 1925, George Neville Watson married Elfrida Gwenfil Lane. She was the daughter of Thomas Wright Lane.