E. T. Whittaker

Biography

Sir Edmund Taylor Whittaker (24 October 1873 – 24 March 1956) was a British mathematician, physicist, and historian of science. Born in Southport, Lancashire, he attended The Manchester Grammar School before going on to Trinity College, Cambridge, where he became a leading mathematical talent of his generation. He won the Smith's Prize in 1897 and the Tyson Medal in 1896, early recognitions in a career that would span six decades, contributing significantly to mathematics, physics, and the history of science.

Whittaker's career path included several key institutions and roles. He was the Royal Astronomer of Ireland from 1906 to 1912, working at the Dunsink Observatory near Dublin and contributing to astronomical research and celestial mechanics. In 1912, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and accepted the chair of mathematics at the University of Edinburgh, a position he held for thirty years. At Edinburgh, he developed a renowned school of mathematics and numerical analysis, mentoring many students while continuing his own research.

His notable contributions to mathematics include his work on special functions, especially the Whittaker functions, and his development of the Whittaker–Shannon interpolation formula, a key result in digital signal processing and information theory. His textbook "A Course of Modern Analysis," co-authored with George Neville Watson, became essential for mathematicians and physicists throughout the twentieth century. His book "Analytical Dynamics of Particles and Rigid Bodies" also became a key reference in classical mechanics.

Whittaker also made a strong impact as a historian of science. His two-volume "A History of the Theories of Aether and Electricity" covers the development of electromagnetic theory and relativity from the seventeenth century onward. The second volume, published in 1953, stirred controversy by crediting Henri Poincaré and Hendrik Lorentz as the main developers of special relativity, assigning Albert Einstein a secondary role. This view was debated by the scientific community, though the consensus among historians of physics continues to recognize Einstein's 1905 paper as the foundational work on special relativity.

Whittaker received many honors for his work. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1905, received the Sylvester Medal in 1931, the De Morgan Medal in 1935, and the Copley Medal in 1954, one of the highest honors in British science. He also received the Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice from the Holy See in 1935, reflecting his deep Catholic faith, which influenced his later writings on the relationship between science and religion. He passed away in Edinburgh on 24 March 1956.