Background
Andrew Forsythwas born on June 18, 1858, in Glasgow, United Kingdom. He was the son of John Forsyth, a marine engineer, and of Christina Glenn.
United Kingdom
Andrew Forsyth
United Kingdom
Andrew Forsyth
United Kingdom
Andrew Forsyth
Trinity College, Cambridge CB2 1TQ, United Kingdom
Forsyth entered Trinity College, Cambridge in 1877, where he studied mathematics under Arthur Cayley. He graduated in 1881 as first wrangler.
educator mathematician scientist
Andrew Forsythwas born on June 18, 1858, in Glasgow, United Kingdom. He was the son of John Forsyth, a marine engineer, and of Christina Glenn.
Forsyth entered Trinity College, Cambridge in 1877, where he studied mathematics under Arthur Cayley. He graduated in 1881 as first wrangler.
In 1882 Forsyth was appointed to the chair of mathematics at University College, Liverpool, but in 1884 he returned to Cambridge as a lecturer.
As a mathematician Forsyth belonged to the school of his Cambridge master, Cayley, and was outstanding in his ability to marshal complicated formulas. His importance in the history of British mathematics is due, however, to his being a great traveler and a good linguist. He was thus the first to realize the deficiencies of the Cambridge school, which was almost completely ignorant of Continental mathematics. Forsyth was determined to rectify this situation, and in 1893 he published his Theory of Functions, which had a great influence on British mathematics. As a result, for many years function theory dominated Cambridge mathematics.
In 1895 Forsyth succeeded Cayley as Sadlerian professor of pure mathematics but resigned in 1910. After a short time in Calcutta, he was appointed chief professor of mathematics at Imperial College, London, in 1913. Although he retired in 1923, he continued to write mathematical treatises; but his point of view was antiquated, his work being based on manipulative skill rather than on logical processes.
Forsyth was a member of the Royal Society London, London Mathematical Society, the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and Manchester Literature and Philosophical Society. He was also a foreign member of the Reale Istituto Lombardo, and of National Academy of Sciences, Washington.
Forsyth was forced to resign his chair in 1910 as a result of a scandal caused by his affair with Marion Amelia Boys, née Pollock, the wife of physicist C. V. Boys. Boys was granted a divorce on the grounds of Marion's adultery with Forsyth. Marion and Andrew Forsyth were later married.