Harold Jeffreys

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Harold Jeffreys
Harold Jeffreys
Harold Jeffreys
Born 22 April 1891
Died 18 March 1989
Fields mathematics
Notable awards Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1937

Sir Harold Jeffreys (22 April 1891 – 18 March 1989) was a mathematician, statistician, geophysicist, and astronomer.

Plaque to Sir Harold Jeffreys, Newcastle University
Plaque to Sir Harold Jeffreys, Newcastle University

He was born in Fatfield, County Durham, England. He studied at Armstrong College in Newcastle upon Tyne, then part of the University of Durham, and with the University of London External Programme.[1] He then went to St John's College, Cambridge and became a fellow in 1914. At Cambridge University he taught mathematics, then geophysics and finally became the Plumian Professor of Astronomy.

He married another mathematician and physicist, Bertha Swirles (1903-1999), in 1940 and together they wrote Methods of Mathematical Physics.

Among his other contributions was a Bayesian approach to probability (also see Jeffreys prior), and the idea that the Earth's planetary core was liquid. He was knighted in 1953.

Jeffreys received the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1937, the Royal Society's Copley Medal in 1960, and the Royal Statistical Society's Guy Medal in Gold in 1962.

From 1939 to 1952 he was established as Director of the International Seismological Summary further known as International Seismological Centre.

See William H. Jefferys, also both an astronomer and a Bayesian.

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ The Papers of Harold Jeffreys, Website [1]

[edit] References

  • David Howie, "Interpreting Probability: Controversies and Developments in the Early Twentieth Century" (Cambridge University Press, 2002)
  • Maria Carla Galavotti. "Harold Jeffreys' Probabilistic Epistemology: Between Logicism And Subjectivism". British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, 54(1):43-57 (March 2003). (A review of Jeffreys' approach to probability; includes remarks on R.A. Fisher, Frank P. Ramsey, and Bruno de Finetti. Also online: [2])
  • Bertha Swirles, Reminiscences and Discoveries: Harold Jeffreys from 1891 to 1940, Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London, Vol. 46, No. 2, pp. 301-308 (1992). [3]

[edit] External links