Welsh Mathematicians

Historically Welsh mathematicians, like many UK scientists, have tended to be white and male. In future this is likely to be very different! To see a diverse selection of top mathematicians, see our Careers in Mathematics videos.

Robert Recorde 1512(?)-1558

Born in Tenby, the inventor of the equals sign (=) and author of books on mathematics for ordinary people: an inspired teacher

Wikipedia Commons (1740)

William Jones 1674-1749

Born in Llanfihangel Tre’r-beirdd, Anglesey: mathematician who introduced the symbol π to represent the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter. A close colleague of Isaac Newton.

Painting by Benjamin West (1784).
By permission of Paul Frame

Richard Price 1723-1791

Born in Llangeinor (Cwm Garw, near Bridgend): philosopher, preacher, radical and mathematician, who established the Bayes-Price equation as the basis of the mathematics of insurance.

Engraving by William Say (1803) after a painting by George Hounsom. 
By permission of Paul Frame

William Morgan 1750-1833

Born in Bridgend: a doctor and mathematician who established work as an actuary as a profession.

Gwynedd Archives Service

Griffith Davies 1788-1855

Born in Y Groeslon, Arfon: mathematician and actuary, highly respected for his charity and benevolence.

Archives and Special Collections, Bangor University

George Hartley Bryan 1864-1928

Born in Cambridge, his career was spent at Bangor University: an outstanding mathematician who published Stability in Aviation in 1913, the basis of the science of flight.

Wikipedia Commons (1957)

Bertrand Russell 1872-1970

Born in the village of Trellech, Monmouthshire: philosopher, logician, mathematician and campaigner for peace: he sought to establish arithmetic on a firm logical base.

Wikipedia Commons

Lancelot Thomas Hogben 1895-1975

Born in Southsea, Hampshire, and adopted by the village of Glyn Ceiriog: an experimental zoologist and medical statistician who popularised mathematics and science.

By permission of the Niels Bohr Archive

Evan James Williams 1903-1945

Born in the village of Cwmsychbant, Ceredigion: a physicist who used mathematics to analyse the atom.

By permission of the National Physical Laboratory.

Donald Watts Davies 1924-2000

Born in Treorchy, Rhondda: a computer scientist who pioneered the method of packet-switching to transfer data; the godfather of the modern internet.

Mary Wynne Warner 1932-1998

Born in Carmarthen: a mathematician who ‘made precise the property of imprecision’, shattering the gender glass ceiling. 

John Frankland Rigby 1933-2014

Born near Manchester, his career was spent at Cardiff University: a remarkable geometer and educationist.