Noel Glynne Lloyd, 1946–2019

Abstract

Noel Lloyd was born in Llanelli, Carmarthenshire, on 26 December 1946. He was educated first at Ysgol Gymraeg Dewi Sant (St David's Welsh School) and then at Llanelli Grammar School for Boys, where his father was his mathematics teacher. He subsequently attended Queens' College, Cambridge, where he obtained a First Class in all Parts of the Mathematical Tripos. Noel proceeded to work for his PhD under the supervision of Sir Peter Swinnerton-Dyer; his thesis, which he defended in 1972, was entitled ‘Periodic solutions of differential equations’. After two years at St John's College, Cambridge, Noel was appointed to a Lectureship in Pure Mathematics at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth. He remained at Aberystwyth for the remainder of his working life where he was appointed Head of Department, Dean of the Faculty of Science, Pro-Vice-Chancellor and Vice-Chancellor of the University and also served on numerous academic, scientific and governmental committees well into his retirement; these included the Commission on Devolution in Wales. Noel's research centred on systems of polynomial differential equations and their connection to the famous outstanding Hilbert's Sixteenth Problem, with his research group being early users of Computer Algebra to make progress with complex calculations. In his free time he was a talented organist and active within the Presbyterian Church of Wales where he pursued his deep religious beliefs and acted as a prominent member of the church's administrative leadership. He died at the age of 72 on 7 June 2019.