Background
Rankin was born in Garlieston, Wigtownshire, Scotland, attended Fettes College and graduated from Clare College, Cambridge in 1937.
educational foundation executive
Rankin was born in Garlieston, Wigtownshire, Scotland, attended Fettes College and graduated from Clare College, Cambridge in 1937.
Bachelor of Arts, University Iowa, 1937; Bachelor of Divinity, Yale, 1940; Master of Arts, Yale, 1942; honorary Doctor of Divinity, Lindenwood College, St. Charles, Missouri, 1964; honorary Doctor of Divinity, Northland College, Ashland, Wisconsin, 1981; Doctor of Hebrew Literature (honorary), University Southern California, 1967.
Rankin"s father, the Revd Oliver Shaw Rankin, was a minister who later became Professor of Old Testament Language, Literature and Theology in the University of Edinburgh. In Cambridge he was particularly influenced by J.E. Littlewood and Agricultural Engineer Ingham. He was elected a fellow of Clare College in 1939, but his career was interrupted by the Second World War, during which he worked on rocketry research at Fort Halstead.
In 1945 he returned to Cambridge, and then moved to the University of Birmingham in 1951 as Mason professor of mathematics.
In 1954 he became Professor of Mathematics, Glasgow University, retiring in 1982. He had a continuing interest in Srinivasa Ramanujan, working initially with G.H. Hardy on Ramanujan"s unpublished notes.
His research interests lay in the distribution of prime numbers and in modular forms. In 1939 he developed what is now known as the Rankin–Selberg method.
In 1977 Cambridge University Press published Rankin"s Modular Forms and Functions.
In his review, Marvin Knopp wrote:
Foreign, as much as any recent exposition of modular functions, this book succeeds in getting near the research frontier, and in some instances even reaches it — no small feat in this theory. He died in Glasgow in 2001.
Trustee School Theology at Claremont, 1955-1959, advisor, since 1985, American Friends of Wilton Park, 1975, Healing Community St. Louis, 1976-1981, Claremont, 1984-1990, National Task Force for Disability and the Art, 1978-1981, Evangelicals for Social Action. Member Committee on Disability City of Claremont. Resident Pilgrim Place, Claremont, 1981.
Advisor Pilgrim Festival, since 1983, Pilgrim Aquatic Fitness Center, since 1993. Member National Association College and University Chaplains, Association for Religion and Intellectual Life, National Campus Ministry Association, American Friends Service Committee, American Association United Nations, American Academy Religion, American Association for Higher Education, American Civil Liberties Union, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Sigma Chi, University Claremont Club.
Married Martha Jean Roberts, September 7, 194O. Children: Mary Renne (Mistress Joseph L. Sturdevant Junior), Margaret Lloyd, Wiley Robert, William Roberts.
