Background
Willmore, Thomas James was born on April 16, 1919 in Gillingham, Kent, England. Son of Thomas George and Elizabeth (Blackwell) Willmore.
Willmore, Thomas James was born on April 16, 1919 in Gillingham, Kent, England. Son of Thomas George and Elizabeth (Blackwell) Willmore.
1 child, Helen Joyce. Bachelor of Science, Kings College, University London, 1939. Master of Science, 1941, Doctor of Philosophy, 1943, Doctor of Science, 1961.
Honorary doctor Open University, England, 1994.
Science officer Air Ministry, 1939-1946. Lecturer University Durham, England, 1946-1954, professor mathematics, 1965-1984, emeritus professor, since 1984.
Lecturer, reader University Liverpool, England, 1954-1965.
He is best known for his work on Riemannian 3-space and harmonic spaces. After his graduation in 1939, he was appointed as a lecturer, but the onset of World World War II led him to working as a scientific officer at Royal Air Force Cardington, working mainly on barrage balloon defences. In 1946, he was given a lectureship at the University of Durham.
He wrote an influential book with AG Walker and High School Ruse entitled Harmonic Spaces in 1953.
He left Durham in 1954 for the University of Liverpool to join Walker, after a supposed dispute between Willmore and a Durham colleague who refused to order German textbooks after being wounded in World War I.
In 1965, Willmore returned to Durham, where he was appointed Professor of Pure Mathematics. He was elected Vice President of the London Mathematical Society in 1977, a post he held for two years.
Willmore retired from Durham in 1984 after holding the position of the Head of the Department of Mathematical Sciences on three separate occasions, covering most of his Professorship there. He was given an honorary degree from the Open University in 1994.
Fellow Institute of Mathematics and Its Applications. Member London Mathematics Society (vice president 1977-1979), American Mathematics Society.
Married Joyce Ellen Miller, October.20, 1940. 1 child, Helen Joyce.