Fritz J. Ursell
* 28.04.1923 in Düsseldorf, Germany; † 12.05.2012 in Manchester, United Kingdom
Weinblum Lecturer 1985/86
Mathematical Observations on the Method of Multipoles | dok.tub
Short Biography
Fritz J. Ursell studied Mathematics at Trinity College, Cambridge, obtaining his BA degree in 1943. He then worked at the Admiralty Research Laboratory until 1947 and then as a I.C.I. Research Fellow in Applied Mathematics at the University of Manchester. From 1950 to 1961, he was a university lecturer at Cambridge, where he obtained a PhD in 1958. Since 1961, he had been the Beyer Professor of Applied Mathematics at the University of Manchester.
Professor Ursell published more than fifty scientific papers dealing with a large number of topics from the field of applied mathematics. Ship hydrodynamicists are less familiar with his works on mathematical methods in acoustics than on ocean and ship waves. Well known are his papers on added mass, which initiated the theoretical description of ship motions in waves.
Although Ursell was a mathematician by nature, he supervised the doctoral dissertations of many well-known ship hydrodynamicists, such as John N. Newman and Ernest O. Tuck. In 1972 Professor Ursell became a Fellow of the Royal Society.
Fritz J. Ursell died in 2012.
External Links
[–] Wikipedia entry for Fritz J. Ursell
[The short biography is taken from invitation letter for the Weinblum Memorial Lecture held by Fritz J. Ursell. Some slight modifications have been made when deemed necessary.]