Biography:Hyman Levy

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Prof Hyman Levy FRSE (1889–1975) was a Scottish-Jewish philosopher, Emeritus Professor of Imperial College London, mathematician, political activist and fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.[1]

Life

The son of Minna Cohen and Marcus Levy, a picture-framer and occasional art dealer in Edinburgh, Hyman was the third oldest of eight children.[2] They lived at 70 Bristo Street in Edinburgh's South Side.[3]

He went to school at George Heriot's School[4] a short distance from his family home and was the School Dux.[5] He then Studied Mathematics at Edinburgh University. With the aid of scholarships, he did further studies at Cambridge University and was able to go to Germany to study at the University of Göttingen.[2] At the outbreak of World War I he returned to Britain. In 1916 he joined the Royal Flying Corps.[6] It is unclear if he saw active service but it inspired an interest in aerodynamics.

Researching aeronautics at the National Physical Laboratory, Levy published papers and books on mathematical applications pertaining to aeronautics. He also wrote about differential equations and probability.[2] After leaving the laboratory, he became a professor of mathematics at the Royal College of Science of Imperial College London where he later served as the head of the department. At Imperial, he is believed to have greatly improved the department of mathematics, and in recognition to his contribution, he later became the dean of the Royal College of Science.[7]

In 1916 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. His proposers were Cargill Gilston Knott, Edmund Taylor Whittaker, James Robert Milne and George Alexander Carse.[8]

In 1918, he married Marion Aitken Fraser,[4] despite the disapproval of his family.[2] They had three children. Levy was in the Labour Party from 1920 to 1931, and then in 1931 he joined the British Communist Party. Despite his theoretical allegiance to the principles of communism, Levy became disappointed by the way the Russian communists treated Jews, and published on the topic, leading to his expulsion from the party in 1958.[4]

He died in Wimbledon, London on 27 February 1975.[9]

Following Levy's paper "On Goldbach's Conjecture" from 1963, Lemoine's conjecture is incorrectly referred to by MathWorld as "Levy's conjecture."[10]

Publications

  • Finite Difference Equations, co-authored with F. Lessman; Pitman (Dec 1959), ISBN:978-0486672601.
  • Aeronautics in Theory and Experiment, co-authored with William Lewis Cowley; ASIN: B000WUT77A; republished by BiblioBazaar; ISBN:978-0559313677.
  • Jews and the National Question, Hillway Pub. Co., London; 1st Edition (1958); ASIN: B0007J87TA.
  • Aspects of Dialectical Materialism, co-authored with Ralph Fox. John MacMurray et al.; Watts (1935), London; ASIN: B0037ZPVHC.
  • Literature for an age of science, Methuen (1952); ASIN: B0000CIEER.
  • Social Thinking, Cobbett (1945); ASIN: B0014KNTQW.
  • Elementary Statistics (Nelson's Aeroscience Manuals), Nelson (1945); ASIN: B001P8HX9C.
  • Elementary Statistics (Nelson's Aeroscience Manuals), Thomas Nelson (1945); ASIN: B00978213K.
  • Soviet Jews at war, pamphlet, Russia Today Society (1943); ASIN: B00KBTLNDI.
  • Science: Curse Or Blessing?, Watts & Co. (1940); ASIN: B0026OCT8O.
  • Elementary Mathematics, Thomas Nelson & Sons (1942); ASIN: B0007DT7RC.
  • Modern Science – A Study of Physical Science in the World Today, Hamish Hamilton (1939); ASIN: B00085G0RO.[11]
  • Elementary Statistics, Nelson (1959), London; ASIN: B000OUHSRO.
  • A Philosophy for a Modern Man; Alfred A. Knopf (1938); ASIN: B0006DA3US.
  • Modern Engineering Theory & Practice, co-authored with Bailey Levy; Odhams Press Ltd (1935); ASIN: B000R7AJPW.
  • Practical Mathematical Analysis ... With examples by the translator, co-authored with Horst von Sanden; ASIN: B0017WK6S6.
  • The Universe of Science; republished by Rupa and Co, New Delhi; ISBN 81-291-0168-8.

See also

  • Dorothy Galton

References

  1. ↑ Staff,Hyman Levy Gazetteer for Scotland, Retrieved 10 February 2010
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 O'Connor, John J.; Robertson, Edmund F., "Levy Hyman", MacTutor History of Mathematics archive, University of St Andrews, http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Levy_Hyman.html .
  3. ↑ Edinburgh and Leith Post Office Directory 1890–91
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Facsimile of the Obituary of Levy Hyman, published in The Times, reproduced by St Andrews University
  5. ↑ "School Captains and Duxes George Heriot's School". http://www.george-heriots.com/former-pupils/other-items-for-fps/school-captains-and-duxes. 
  6. ↑ Biographical Index of Former Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 1783–2002. The Royal Society of Edinburgh. July 2006. ISBN 0-902-198-84-X. https://www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/biographical_index/fells_indexp2.pdf. 
  7. ↑ "Levy_Hyman biography". http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Biographies/Levy_Hyman.html. 
  8. ↑ Biographical Index of Former Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 1783–2002. The Royal Society of Edinburgh. July 2006. ISBN 0-902-198-84-X. https://www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/biographical_index/fells_indexp2.pdf. 
  9. ↑ Biographical Index of Former Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 1783–2002. The Royal Society of Edinburgh. July 2006. ISBN 0-902-198-84-X. https://www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/biographical_index/fells_indexp2.pdf. 
  10. ↑ Weisstein, Eric W.. "Levy's Conjecture". http://mathworld.wolfram.com/LevysConjecture.html. 
  11. ↑ MacDonald, J. K. L. (1940). "Review: Modern Science, A Study of Physical Science in the World Today by Hyman Levy". Bull. Amer. Math. Soc. 46 (3): 209–210. doi:10.1090/s0002-9904-1940-07166-6. https://www.ams.org/journals/bull/1940-46-03/S0002-9904-1940-07166-6/S0002-9904-1940-07166-6.pdf. 

Further reading

  • G A Barnard, Hyman Levy, Dictionary of National Biography, 1971–1980 (Oxford-New York, 1986), 503–504.





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