Not necessarily related to my job with no name, but today I gave some thought to names for the new team structure we’re moving to. Gone are the three houses named after the rivers Box, Brett & Stour. Me & my form will now be in a team of 8 forms made of teachers from Maths, ICT & Law – all the best subjects!
The necessary topic of conversation is what do we call our new team? I’ve had a go at finding a few famous bods who were mathematical or computing based, or both.
You can discuss the ideas at one of the job related things I did do today – a new page on the VLE for student discussions: http://learn.gcus.net/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=434
Babbage
Babbage originated the modern analytic computer. By 1834 he invented the principle of the analytical engine, the forerunner of the modern electronic computer.
http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Babbage.html
Ballmer
Steve Ballmer – Microsoft executive and billionaire. Has a BA in mathematics and economics from Harvard University.Bram Stoker – Author of Dracula. He earned an M.A. in mathematics from Trinity College, Dublin.
Berezovsky
Boris Berezovsky – Controversial Russian billionaire, political figure, and expatriate. Was a professor of applied mathematics at Moscow State University. He has results in optimization and control theory.
Bonaparte
Napoleon Bonaparte – French emperor. He is traditionally credited with Napoleon’s theorem[13] and Napoleon’s problem due to his documented interest in mathematics, although there is no direct evidence for either attribution.
Borg
Dr. Anita Borg (1949 – 2003) devoted her adult life to revolutionizing the way we think about technology and dismantling barriers that keep women and minorities from entering computing and technology fields. Her combination of technical expertise and fearless vision continues to inspire and motivate countless women to become active participants and leaders in creating technology.
http://www.google.com/anitaborg/
Brill
Alexander von Brill contributed to the study of algebraic geometry, trying to bring the rigour of algebra into the study of curves.
http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/history/Biographies/Brill.html
Brin
Sergey Brin – Billionaire co-founder of Google. Has a BS in mathematics and computer science from the University of Maryland. (His father, Michael Brin, is a research mathematician at Maryland.)
Carroll
Lewis Carroll – Pen name for Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, who was an English author, mathematician, logician, Anglican clergyman, and photographer. He held the Christ Church Mathematical Lectureship for 26 years.
Cayley
As a child, Arthur Cayley enjoyed solving complex math problems for amusement.
http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/history/Mathematicians/Cayley.html
Clarke
Edith Clarke received the first degree ever awarded by MIT’s Electrical Engineering department to a woman in June 1919. In 1919, she took a job as a computor for GE in Schenectady, NY, and in 1921 filed a patent for a “graphical calculator” to be employed in solving electric power transmission line problems.
http://www.cs.yale.edu/homes/tap/past-women-cs.html#Edith%20Clarke
Freitag
Herta Freitag received the degree Magister Rerum Naturalium, in Mathematics and Physics, from the University of Vienna in 1934, and graduated M.A. (1948), Ph.D. (1953) from Columbia University, USA. – It would also serve as a reminder of our once illustrious headteacher 
http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Freitag.html
Garfunkel
Art Garfunkel – Singer. He received a Master’s degree in mathematics from Columbia University.
Granville
Evelyn Boyd Granville, who earned her doctorate in Mathematics in 1949 from Yale University, was one of the first African American women to earn a Ph.D. in Mathematics. During her career, she developed computer programs that were used for trajectory analysis in the Mercury Project (the first U.S. manned mission in space) and in the Apollo Project (which sent U.S. astronauts to the moon).
http://www.cs.yale.edu/homes/tap/past-women-cs.html#Evelyn%20Granville http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Granville.html
Hopper
Grace Hopper was one of the pioneers in the development of the electronic computer. She is (probably) the only mathematician to have a warship named after her.
http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Hopper.html
http://www.cs.yale.edu/homes/tap/past-women-cs.html#Grace%20Hopper
Hypatia
Hypatia of Alexandria was the first woman to make a substantial contribution to the development of mathematics.
http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Hypatia.html
Lovelace (or Ada?)
Ada Lovelace was a daughter of Lord Byron who became interested in Babbage’s analytic engine and described how it could be programmed.
http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Lovelace.html
http://www.cs.yale.edu/homes/tap/ada-lovelace.html
May
Brian May – Rock guitarist and composer. He worked briefly as a mathematics teacher before joining Queen.
Morley
Frank Morley wrote mainly on geometry but also on algebra. Born in Woodbridge.
http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Morley.html
Nightingale
Florence Nightingale is best remembered for her work as a nurse during the Crimean War and her contribution towards the reform of the sanitary conditions in military field hospitals. However, what is less well known about this amazing woman is her love of mathematics, especially statistics, and how this love played an important part in her life’s work.
http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Nightingale.html
Pascal
Blaise Pascal was a very influencial French mathematician and philosopher who contributed to many areas of mathematics. He worked on conic sections and projective geometry and in correspondence with Fermat he laid the foundations for the theory of probability.
http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Pascal.html
Péter
From the mid 1950s Rózsa Péter applied recursive function theory to computers.
http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Peter.html
http://www.cs.yale.edu/homes/tap/past-women-cs.html#Rosa%20Peter
Sharif
Omar Sharif – Hollywood actor. He graduated from Alexandria’s Victoria College, then from Cairo University with a mathematics and physics major.
Somerville
Mary Somerville wrote many works which influenced Maxwell. Her discussion of a hypothetical planet perturbing Uranus led Adams to his investigation.
http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Somerville.html
Turing
Alan Turing’s work was fundamental in the theoretical foundations of computer science.
http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Turing.html
Wade
Virginia Wade – Professional tennis player with a BA in mathematics and physics from Sussex University.
Zuse
Konrad Zuse was an engineer & computer pioneer, he built the first computer to use binary.
http://ei.cs.vt.edu/~history/Zuse.html
A few other links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_famous_people_trained_in_mathematics
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_computing
http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Indexes/Women.html
