British mathematician
John Mackintosh Howie CBE FRSE Scottish mathematician and prominent semigroup theorist .[ 1]
Biography
Howie was educated at Robert Gordon's College , Aberdeen , the University of Aberdeen and Balliol College, Oxford , where he wrote a Ph.D. thesis under the direction of Graham Higman .
In 1966 the University of Stirling was established with Walter D. Munn (fr ) at head of the department of mathematics. Munn recruited Howie to teach there.[ 2] : 290
According to Christopher Hollings,
...a 'British school' of semigroup theory cannot be said to have taken off properly until the mid-1960s when John M. Howie completed an Oxford DPhil in semigroup theory (partly under Preston's influence) and Munn began to supervise research students in semigroups (most notably, Norman R. Reilly).[ 2] He won the Keith Prize of the Royal Society of Edinburgh , 1979–81. He was Regius Professor of Mathematics at the University of St Andrews from 1970 to 1997. No successor to this chair was named until 2015 when Igor Rivin was appointed.
Howie was charged with reviewing universal, comprehensive secondary education in Scotland, which was viewed as failing its students. Impressed with education in Denmark , his committee proposed a tracking scheme to improve academic outcomes, and communicated recommendations in Upper Secondary Education in Scotland (1992).[ 3] [ 4]
Public appointments
Mathematics Panel, Scottish Examination Board 1967–1973; Convener from 1970
Chairman, Scottish Central Committee for Mathematics 1975–1981
President, Edinburgh Mathematical Society 1973–74
London Mathematical Society :
Council 1982–1988, 1989–1992
Vice-president 1986–1988, 1990–1992
Chairman of Education Committee 1985–1989
Chairman of Public Affairs Committee 1990–1992 Member of Dunning Committee 1975–1977
Chairman of Governors, Dundee College of Education 1983–1987
Governor, Northern College of Education 1987–2001
Chairman, Scottish Mathematical Council 1987–1993
Chairman, Committee to review fifth and sixth years (Howie Committee ) 1990–1992
Council, Royal Society of Edinburgh 1992–1995
Chairman, Steering Committee, International Centre for Mathematical Sciences 1991–1997
Books
References
^ Published on Monday 23 January 2012 00:00. "Obituary: Professor John Howie, academic who helped reform Scottish education - Obituaries" . Scotsman.com. Retrieved 23 January 2012 . {{cite web }}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link )^ a b Hollings, Christopher (2014), Mathematics across the Iron Curtain: A History of the Algebraic Theory of Semigroups , American Mathematical Society , p. 185, ISBN 978-1-4704-1493-1 Zbl 1317.20001 ^ "Howie Report" (PDF) . University of Edinburgh .^ Andrew McPherson (1992) "The Howie Committee on Post-compulsory Schooling" (PDF) . Scottish Government Yearbook.
^ O'Connor, John J.; Robertson, Edmund F. , "Howie Committee" , MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive University of St Andrews
External links
International National Academics People Other
