Mathematics at University College, Bangor : Mr. D. E. Littlewood

Abstract

MR. D. E. LITTLEWOOD, whose appointment to the chair of mathematics at the University College of North Wales, Bangor, in succession to Prof. T. G. Cowling, has recently been announced, is Well known as an algebraist. His best-known work is concerned with the theory of group characters, a branch of algebra which has been extensively developed in the last fifty years and which has an unusually wide application to fields as diverse as the algebraic theory of invariants and modern quantum mechanics. Littlewood‘s work is in the direct line of tradition associated with the names of Frobenius, Alfred Young, and Schur ; and his book, "The Theory of Group Characters" published in 1940, is a standard work on the subject. In recent papers, Littlewood has developed a calculus of a class of symmetric functions known as Schur functions which have recently been shown to have extensive applications in invariant theory.