Robin Wilson (mathematician)

:"This article is about Robin Wilson the mathematician. For the musician, see Robin Wilson."

Robin James Wilson (born December 1943) is a professor in the Department of Mathematics at the Open University, a fellow by special election of Keble College, Oxford and, as of 2006, professor of geometry at Gresham College, London, where he has also been a visiting professor. On occasion, he guest teaches at Colorado College.

He is the son of Harold Wilson, former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

Education

* University College School (independent), Hampstead
* BA First Class Honours in Mathematics from Balliol College, Oxford (2:1 in Honour Moderations)
* MA from the University of Pennsylvania
* PhD from the University of Pennsylvania (1965–1968)
* BA First Class Honours in Humanities with Music from the Open University.

Mathematics

Professor Wilson's academic interests lie in graph theory, particularly in colouring problems, e.g. the four colour problem, and algebraic properties of graphs.

He also researches the history of mathematics, particularly British mathematics and mathematics in the 17th century and the period 1860 to 1940 and the history of graph theory and combinatorics.

Due to his collaboration on a 1977 paper with the noted Hungarian mathematician Paul Erdős, Wilson has an Erdős number of 1.

In July 2008 he published a study of the mathematical work of Lewis Carroll, the creator of "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" and "Through the Looking-Glass" — "Lewis Carroll in Numberland: His Fantastical Mathematical Logical Life". [Allen Lane, 2008. ISBN 978-0713997576]

Other interests

He has strong interests in music, including the operas of Gilbert and Sullivan, and is the co-author (with Frederic Lloyd) of "Gilbert and Sullivan: The Official D'Oyly Carte Picture History". [Knopf, 1984. ISBN 9780394541136] In 2007 he was a guest on "Private Passions", the biographical music discussion programme on BBC Radio 3. [ [http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/privatepassions/ BBC Radio 3] ]

Other notable publications

Wilson has written or edited about thirty books to date, including popular books on sudoku and the Four Color Theorem:
*Hidden Word Sudoku, Infinite Ideas Limited 2005: ISBN 1-904902-74-X
*How to Solve Sudoku, Infinite Ideas Limited 2005: ISBN 1-904902-62-6
*Sherlock Holmes in Babylon and Other Tales of Mathematical History (co-edited with M. Anderson and V.J. Katz), The Mathematical Association of America, 2004: ISBN 0883855461
*Mathematics and Music: From Pythagoras to Fractals (co-edited with J. Fauvel & R. Flood), Oxford University Press, 2003: ISBN 0-19-851187-6
*Four Colours Suffice: How the Map Problem Was Solved, Allen Lane (Penguin), 2002: ISBN 0-7139-9670-6
*Stamping through Mathematics, Springer, 2001: ISBN 0-387-98949-8
*Oxford Figures: 800 Years of the Mathematical Sciences (with J. Fauvel & R. Flood), Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2000: ISBN 0-19-852309-2
*Graphs and Applications: An Introductory Approach (with J.M. Aldous), Springer, 2000: ISBN 1-85233-259-X
*Mathematical Conversations: Selections from the Mathematical Intelligencer (with J. Gray), Springer, 2000: ISBN 0-387-98686-3
*An Atlas of Graphs (with R.C. Read), Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1998: ISBN 0-19-853289-X (paperback edition, 2002: ISBN 0-19-852650-4)
*Graph Theory 1736-1936 (with N.L. Biggs and E.K. Lloyd), Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1976: ISBN 0-19-853901-0

ee also

* List of Gresham Professors of Geometry

References

External links

* [http://puremaths.open.ac.uk/pmd_department/pmd_wilson/pmd_wilson.html Robin Wilson's Page at the Open University]
* [http://www.mathematics.open.ac.uk/People/r.j.wilson Robin Wilson's entry in the Faculty of Mathematics and Computing at the Open University]
* [http://www.gresham.ac.uk/text.asp?PageId=27 Robin Wilson's Page at Gresham College]
* [http://www.keble.ox.ac.uk/academics/about/professor-robin-j-wilson Robin Wilson's Page at Keble College]
* [http://genealogy.math.ndsu.nodak.edu/html/id.phtml?id=36152 Robin Wilson's entry at the Mathematics Genealogy Project]
* [http://youtube.com/watch?v=PEFd4tCWtvk Robin Wilson presenting an Open University TV programme from the 1980s]