Alfred Cardew Dixon is remembered in mathematics for work the next generation could build on.
The record lists Alfred Cardew Dixon as English mathematician (1865-1936).
Alfred Cardew Dixon was born at Northallerton in 1865. His recorded nationality is United Kingdom. He studied at Trinity College and Kingswood School.
The nineteenth century made mathematics rigorous: definitions were tightened, foundations questioned, and whole fields created from scratch.
His academic posts were held at University of Galway, Queen's University Belfast and Trinity College.
The recorded fields of work are mathematics.
Among his principal contributions are Dixon's identity and Dixon's elliptic functions. Mathematics accumulates without discarding: a proof from two thousand years ago is still a proof.
The honours record reads: Fellow of the Royal Society (1904) and Smith's Prize (1888).
That the work was done from United Kingdom matters: mathematical training, institutions and the language of publication have never been evenly distributed.
Alfred Cardew Dixon died in 1936, aged 71. The proofs remain, and a proof does not decay - which is the particular permanence mathematics offers.
Achievements
- Fellow of the Royal Society — 1904
- Smith's Prize — 1888
- Notable work: Dixon's identity
- Notable work: Dixon's elliptic functions
- Held posts at University of Galway, Queen's University Belfast and Trinity College
- Fields: mathematics
