Ian R. Porteous

Content sourced from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Ian Robertson Porteous (9 October 1930 – 30 January 2011) was a Scottish mathematician and teacher who worked at the University of Liverpool. He wrote three well-known books on geometry and algebra and helped promote math education in Merseyside.

Early life and education
Porteous was born in Crossgates, Fife, the son of Reverend Norman Walker Porteous and May Robertson. He went to George Watson’s College in Edinburgh and earned his first math degree from the University of Edinburgh in 1952. After national service, he studied at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he completed his PhD in Algebraic Geometry in 1961 under W. V. D. Hodge and Michael Atiyah.

Career
He began teaching at the University of Liverpool in 1959 and became a senior lecturer in 1972. He spent a year (1961–62) at Columbia University, where he was influenced by Serge Lang. Porteous did research in differential geometry and published a number of important works, including a 1971 article on the normal singularities of a submanifold.

Books and contributions
His three notable books are:
- Topological Geometry (1969; second edition 1981)
- Geometric Differentiation (1994; second edition 2001)
- Clifford Algebras and the Classical Groups (1995)

Clifford Algebras and the Classical Groups was praised for its clear presentation. Porteous also translated Vladimir Arnold’s work on spherical curves and connected his teaching with applications in science and engineering.

Education charity and competitions
Together with Peter Giblin, Porteous helped create Mathematical Education on Merseyside. They organized a large Challenge math competition for school students, starting in 1978. By 1989, about 3,500 students participated each year. The competition was held over two weekends in spring, with six questions per round and prizes awarded at an evening of mathematical recreation. The problems were designed to be accessible to many students, and solutions were published in their book.

Personal life and death
Porteous enjoyed hill-walking and sang in his church choir. He served as a Liberal councillor on Liverpool City Council from 1974 to 1978. He died suddenly on 30 January 2011, at the age of 80.