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Previous Control Number: UA28 In 1855, Professor William Parkinson Wilson, inaugural Professor of Mathematics, was one of the four foundation professors at the University of Melbourne and had been the best mathematician of his year at Cambridge. Wilson arrived in Melbourne on 31 January 1855 and gave the university's first lecture on 13 April. Courses covered Euclid, trigonometry, algebra, analytical geometry and calculus, and Wilson also taught natural philosophy. In 1858 he devised the first engineering course at an Australian university and the three-year course leading to a certificate of civil engineering was begun in 1861. Two of his students were William Kernot and Henry Andrew. The earliest Mathematics professors were all Cambridge University graduates and Mathematics was initially part of an Arts degree, with course specialisation only occurring later (further research required to find out when). Wilson died in December 1874 and was succeeded in June 1875 by 25 year old Edward John Nanson, another Cambridge graduate. Nanson retired in 1922 and was succeeded as Professor by John Henry Michell (1923-8) and then Thomas Cherry, another fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, who was Professor of Mathematics (pure, mixed and applied) from 1929 until his retirement in 1963. Eric Russell Love held several roles at the University of Melbourne including; Professor of Pure Mathematics (1952-1977); Dean of the Faculty of Arts (1960-1962); Head of the Department of Mathematics (1963-1977); Professor Emeritus (1977-1999); and Honorary Professorial Fellow, Department of Mathematics (1977-1999). Previous and Subsequent Entities: 1948 - 1995 Department of Statistics; 1966 - 1995 Department of Mathematics; 1996 - Department of Mathematics and Statistics.Previous Control Number: UA28 |
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