Adrian Edmund Gill, 22 February 1937 - 19 April 1986

Abstract

Adrian Gill died, tragically, a few days after the diagnosis of cancer of the colon in an advanced state and a month after his election to the Fellowship. He was a gifted applied mathematician who made outstanding contributions to dynamical oceanography and to air-sea interaction problems. Most of his research life was spent in the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics at Cambridge, where he was one of the first and best products of the Department’s involvement in geophysical fluid dynamics. In 1984, when the Meteorological Office gave him and his ocean-modelling research group secure positions at the newly created Hooke Institute at Oxford, he was at the height of his powers. He excelled at devising simple yet illuminating models of complex physical processes in the ocean and atmosphere, and at bringing powerful theoretical analysis to bear on dynamical problem s suggested by observations. Recognition of the unity of the ocean-atmosphere system is a key feature of his research, and is a major them e of his important book published in 1982. He was also a pioneer in the study of the effect of the ocean on climatic variations. His influence on developments in oceanography and climatology was not confined to his publications, and was exerted also through his active participation in many international study groups and observational programmes. Both of the authors of this memoir had a close relationship with Adrian Gill and have naturally referred to him here by his given name. Use of the first person in sections 1-8 is by G.K.B . and in sections 9-12 by R.H.