Ioan James facts for kids

Ioan Mackenzie James was a very important British mathematician. He was a FRS, which is a special title for top scientists. He was born on May 23, 1928, and passed away on February 21, 2025.

James worked in a field of math called topology. This area studies the properties of shapes and spaces that stay the same even when they are stretched or bent. He was especially known for his work in homotopy theory. This part of topology looks at how different shapes can be smoothly changed into one another.

Life and Amazing Career

Early Life and Education

Ioan James was born in a town called Croydon in Surrey, England. He went to two well-known schools. First, he studied at St Paul's School, London. After that, he attended Queen's College, Oxford, which is part of the famous University of Oxford.

In 1953, James earned his highest degree, a D. Phil.. This is like getting a super-advanced degree in a subject. His special project was about "Some problems in algebraic topology." He worked on this with his teacher, J. H. C. Whitehead.

Becoming a Top Professor

In 1957, James became a "reader" in pure mathematics. This is a senior teaching and research position at a university. He held this job for many years. From 1959 to 1969, he was also a senior research fellow at St John's College, Oxford. This meant he could focus a lot on his research.

His biggest achievement was becoming the Savilian Chair of Geometry at the University of Oxford. This is a very old and respected position for a mathematician. He held this important role from 1970 until 1995. After that, he became a professor emeritus and an honorary fellow at St John's College. This means he was still connected to the university even after he retired.

Awards and Recognition

Ioan James received many honors for his work. In 1968, he was chosen to be a Fellow of the Royal Society. This is one of the highest awards a scientist in the UK can get.

In 1978, the London Mathematical Society gave him the Senior Whitehead Prize. This award was created to honor his former teacher, J. H. C. Whitehead. Later, in 1984, James became the President of the London Mathematical Society. This showed how much other mathematicians respected his leadership and ideas.

Family Life

In 1961, Ioan James married Rosemary Stewart. She was also a very smart person. Rosemary was a writer and researcher. She studied how businesses and healthcare are managed. Rosemary passed away in 2015. Ioan James lived to be 96 years old, passing away in 2025.

Books by Ioan James

Ioan James wrote several interesting books. Many of them were about famous scientists.

• Topologies and Uniformities (1999)
• Remarkable Mathematicians, From Euler to von Neumann (2002)
• Remarkable Physicists: From Galileo to Yukawa (2004)
• Asperger's Syndrome And High Achievement: Some Very Remarkable People (2005)
• The Mind of the Mathematician (with Michael Fitzgerald) (2007)
• Driven to Innovate: A Century of Jewish Mathematicians and Physicists (2009)
• Remarkable Biologists: From Ray to Hamilton (2009)
• Remarkable Engineers: From Riquet to Shannon (2010)

See also

• James embedding
• James reduced product

External links

• Ioan James at the Mathematics Genealogy Project
• O'Connor, John J; Edmund F. Robertson "Ioan James". MacTutor History of Mathematics archive.