Sir john kingman biography

Sir john kingman net worth

He is known for developing the mathematics of the coalescent theory , a theoretical model of inheritance that is fundamental to modern population genetics. The grandson of a coal miner and son of a government scientist with a PhD in chemistry, Kingman was born in Beckenham , Kent, and grew up in the outskirts of London, where he attended Christ's College, Finchley , which was then a state grammar school.

He was awarded a scholarship to read mathematics at Pembroke College, Cambridge , in Whittle left Cambridge for the University of Manchester , and, rather than follow him there, Kingman moved instead to the University of Oxford , where he resumed his work under David Kendall. After another year, Kendall was appointed a professor at Cambridge and so Kingman returned to Cambridge.

He returned, however, as a member of the teaching staff and a Fellow of Pembroke College and never completed his PhD. Sussex in the s was a very exciting place, alive with ideas and opportunities. My wife was teaching history there, and we made many friends across the whole range of subjects. He held this post until , when he moved, figuratively, but not physically, to Oxford as Wallis Professor of Mathematics , a position he held until Statistics in Oxford in was frankly a mess.

Sir john kingman linkedin

There was no professor of statistics, the only chair having been abolished some years before Whilst at Bristol, he also served in a number of other capacities. In the academic field, he was president of the Royal Statistical Society from to , [ 13 ] and president of the London Mathematical Society from to In Kingman attracted some media attention [ 17 ] [ 18 ] by telling the House of Commons Treasury Select Committee that the UK Census could be conducted using new technology rather than the traditional headcount, or even not conducted at all.

He married Valerie Cromwell in Lady Kingman died in Contents move to sidebar hide.