John Lighton Synge facts for kids
John Lighton Synge (born March 23, 1897 – died March 30, 1995) was an Irish mathematician and physicist. He had a very long career, lasting seven decades. During this time, he worked in Ireland, Canada, and the USA. He wrote many books and papers and was a great teacher. He is known for bringing a new way of looking at relativity using geometry.
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His Early Life and Family
Synge was born in 1897 in Dublin, Ireland. His family was well-known. He went to St. Andrew's College, Dublin and then to Trinity College Dublin (TCD) in 1915. He was chosen as a special "Foundation Scholar" in his first year. This was unusual because it was usually for older students.
In 1919, he earned a degree in Mathematics and Experimental Physics. He also won a gold medal for being an outstanding student. He continued his studies and earned more advanced degrees in 1922 and 1926.
In 1918, Synge married Elizabeth Eleanor Mabel Allen. She was also a student at TCD. They had three daughters: Margaret, Cathleen, and Isabel. Their middle daughter, Cathleen Synge Morawetz, later became a famous mathematician in Canada.
John Lighton Synge had a famous uncle, John Millington Synge, who was a playwright. He was also distantly related to Richard Laurence Millington Synge, who won a Nobel Prize in chemistry. His older brother, Edward Hutchinson Synge, was also a talented mathematician. He did important work in optics, which is the study of light.
John Lighton Synge passed away on March 30, 1995, in Dublin.
His Career in Science
Synge started his career as a lecturer at Trinity College Dublin. Then, in 1920, he moved to the University of Toronto in Canada. He was an assistant professor of mathematics there until 1925. In Toronto, he learned about the theory of relativity and started writing about it.
In 1925, Synge went back to Trinity College Dublin. He became a professor of Natural Philosophy (which is an old name for physics). He was also a member of important math groups like the American Mathematical Society. He was even the treasurer of the Royal Irish Academy in 1929.
He returned to Toronto in 1930. There, he became a professor and head of the Applied Mathematics department. He taught many students who later became important mathematicians. Some of his students included Guo Yonghuai, Chien Wei-zang, and Chia-Chiao Lin.
Synge also worked at other universities in the USA. He was at Princeton University in 1939. In 1941, he taught at Brown University. He became the head of the Mathematics Department at Ohio State University in 1943. Later, he led the Mathematics Department at the Carnegie Institute of Technology in Pittsburgh. The famous mathematician John Nash was one of his students there. He also worked for the US Air Force for a short time.
In 1948, he moved back to Ireland. He took a job as a Senior Professor at the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies. This institute had other brilliant scientists, like Erwin Schrödinger, who helped create quantum mechanics.
What He Contributed
Synge made amazing contributions to many areas of science. These included classical mechanics (the study of motion), geometrical optics (how light travels), and gas dynamics (how gases move). He also worked on hydrodynamics (how liquids move), elasticity (how things stretch), and electrical networks.
His most famous work was using geometry to understand Einstein's theory of relativity. This theory explains how gravity works.
He was one of the first scientists to seriously study the inside of a black hole. His early ideas were used by other scientists to understand the true structure of black holes. He also found a way to describe black holes using "good" coordinates.
In pure mathematics, he is known for Synge's theorem. This theorem is about the shape of certain mathematical spaces. It helps us understand if these spaces are "simply connected" (meaning they have no holes).
He also invented a game called Vish. In this game, players try to find "vicious circles" in dictionary definitions. A vicious circle is when a word is defined using other words that are then defined using the first word.
The Fields Medal
While he was in Toronto, Synge worked with John Charles Fields. Synge helped organize the 1924 International Mathematical Congress. Fields wanted to create a special award for mathematicians. When Fields became sick, Synge helped make sure the award was approved at the 1932 Congress. After Fields passed away, Synge helped finish the plans for the medal. This award is now known as the Fields Medal, one of the highest honors in mathematics.
Honours and Awards
Synge received many awards for his work. In 1943, he was chosen as a fellow of the Royal Society of London. He also became a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. In 1943, he was the first person to receive the Henry Marshall Tory Medal from the Royal Society of Canada. This award recognized him as one of the first mathematicians in Canada to be known worldwide for his research.
In 1954, he was made an honorary fellow of Trinity College Dublin. He was also the president of the Royal Irish Academy from 1961 to 1964. In 1986, the Royal Society of Canada created the John L. Synge Award in his honor.
John Lighton Synge retired in 1972. During his time at the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, many scientists studying relativity theory worked there. Professor Hermann Bondi said that Synge's clear ideas and way of looking at geometry influenced almost everyone in the field. In 1972, he also received the Boyle Medal from the Royal Dublin Society.
Throughout his long career, Synge wrote over 200 scientific papers and 11 books. He also proved the important result known as Synge's theorem.
Selected Books
- 1931 The Mathematical Papers of Sir William Rowan Hamilton: Volume 1, Geometrical Optics
- 1937 Geometrical Optics: An Introduction to Hamilton's Method
- 1942 Geometrical Mechanics and de Broglie Waves
- 1942 Principles of Mechanics (with Byron A. Griffith)
- 1949 Tensor Calculus (with Alfred Schild)
- 1951 Science: Sense and Nonsense
- 1956 Relativity: The Special Theory
- 1957 The Relativistic Gas
- 1957 The Hypercircle in Mathematical Physics
- 1960 Relativity: The General Theory
- 1970 Talking About Relativity
See also
- Synge's world function
