Mathematician:Alexander Craig Aitken

Alex Aitken was a New Zealander mathematician known for his work in statistics, algebra and numerical analysis.

Worked at Bletchley Park during World War II on the Enigma code.

Nationality
New Zealander

History

 * Born: 1 April 1895 in Dunedin, New Zealand
 * 1912: Head Boy at Otago Boys' High School in Dunedin
 * 1913: Won scholarship to Otago University
 * 1915: Enlisted in the New Zealand Expeditionary Force and served in Gallipoli, Egypt, and France
 * 1916: Wounded at Battle of the Somme
 * 1817: Sent back to New Zealand
 * 1919: Student (by correspondence) with Duncan Sommerville
 * 1920: Graduated with First Class Honours in French and Latin but only Second Class Honours in mathematics
 * 1920: Married Mary Winifred Betts
 * 1923: Studied for Ph.D. at Edinburgh University
 * 1925: Appointed to Edinburgh University
 * 1925: Elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh
 * 1926: Awarded a D.Sc. for thesis
 * 1936: Became a Reader in Statistics
 * 1936: Elected a Fellow of the Royal Society
 * 1946: Appointed to Whittaker's Chair
 * 1964: Elected to the Royal Society of Literature
 * Died: 3 November 1967 in Edinburgh, Scotland

Books and Papers

 * 1945: An Introduction to the Theory of Canonical Matrices (with Herbert Westren Turnbull)
 * 1962: The Case against Decimalisation


 * Editor of the series of University Mathematics Texts with Daniel Edwin Rutherford.


 * Contributor towards the series:
 * 1939: Determinants and matrices
 * 1939: Statistical Mathematics