Harold Jeffreys

Sir Harold Jeffreys ( born April 22, 1891 in Fatfield, County Durham, England; † March 18, 1989 in Cambridge, England ) was a British mathematician, statistician, geophysicist, and astronomer.

Life and work

Jeffreys graduated after his school years a very broad study in Newcastle upon Tyne. He first studied mathematics and chemistry as well as physics and geology, and finally astronomy. In 1910 he was admitted at St John's College, University of Cambridge. He initially focused on the math.

1931-1946 Jeffreys was a lecturer in geophysics. At this time, the New Zealander Keith Edward Bullen was one of his students, who had come for a promotion to Cambridge. Together they worked on a correction for P-wave durations of earthquake waves. From this joint work finally published in 1940 Jeffreys - Bullen Tables emerged, which were the basis for interpretations of the earth structure and their internal structure over several decades. Jeffreys was also also one of the first to show the existence of a liquid core. He counts thereby the founders of modern geophysics, however, was the same as a staunch opponent of the postulated by Alfred Wegener continental drift.

Jeffreys also developed the Bayesian statistics on. In 1923 he led before the name of the donors WKB approximation for general linear partial differential equations of 2nd order (but had his hand here as a precursor to other mathematicians ). In 1958 he was appointed Professor of Astronomy and Experimental Philosophy.

Harold Jeffreys was married to Bertha swirles ( 1903-1999 ). Together they wrote Methods of Mathematical Physics.

Honors

For his achievements and contributions Jeffreys received numerous honors and medals. In 1925 he was elected as a member ( "Fellow" ) to the Royal Society of London, the Royal Medal in 1960 and in 1948 awarded him the Copleymedaille. In 1937 he was awarded the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society, 1952 with the William Bowie Medal of the American Geophysical Union.

1953 Jeffreys was knighted. He was 1955-1957 President of the Royal Astronomical Society. For his work awarded him the Royal Statistical Society in 1962 with the Guy Medal in gold.

Publications

Harold Jeffreys wrote a series of books that have been reprinted in part to the 1990s.

  • The Earth, its origin, history and physical constitution. Cambridge University Press 1924
  • Operational methods in mathematical physics. Cambridge University Press 1927
  • Scientific inference. Cambridge University Press 1931
  • Cartesian tensors. Cambridge University Press 1931
  • Earthquakes and Mountains. Methuen 1935
  • Theory of probability. The Clarendon Press, Oxford 1939
  • ( with Bertha swirles ) Methods of Mathematical Physics. Cambridge University Press 1946
  • Asymptotic approximations. The Clarendon Press, Oxford 1962

In addition, he published from 1910 until his death in 1989, more than 430 articles in professional journals.

  • Collected papers. Band 1-2 ( ed. Harold Jeffreys ) 1971, 1973; Band 3-6 (ed. Harold Jeffreys and Bertha ), 1974, 1975, 1976, 1977., Gordon and Breach, London, New York and Paris.
Astrophysics Data System Integrated Authority File
376119
de