Erik Christopher Zeeman
Born: 4 Feb 1925
Chris Zeeman's father Christian Zeeman was from Aarhus in eastern Jutland, Denmark. Zeeman was educated at Christ's Hospital School in Horsham, West Sussex, England. He served as a Flying Officer with the Royal Air Force from 1943 to 1947. Zeeman's university studies were at Christ's College Cambridge and he received his B.A. and Ph.D. from Cambridge.
Zeeman was awarded a fellowship by Gonville and Caius College Cambridge in 1953. After being awarded a Commonwealth Scholarship he spent the year 1954-55 partly at the University of Chicago and partly at Princeton. Back at Cambridge, he was appointed a College Lecturer in 1955.
During 1962-63 Zeeman was a member of the Institut des Hautes Etudes Scientifique. Then in 1964 he made the biggest move of his life when he went to the new University of Warwick in Coventry. There he lead the setting up of the Department of Mathematics and the Mathematics Research Centre. When the University took in its first undergraduates in October 1965, it seemed as though mathematics at Warwick was already established with an international reputation. This was largely due to Zeeman's remarkable leadership.
Zeeman's style of leadership at Warwick was a very informal one. It produced an atmosphere in which mathematical research flourished. From 1964 Zeeman remained at Warwick until 1988, although he did spend 1966-67 as a visiting professor at the University of California at Berkeley. From 1976 till 1981 he held a senior SERC fellowship which enabled him to concentrate on research. He also held a visiting fellowship at Oxford during 1985-86.
In 1988 Zeeman left Warwick, although he was made an honorary professor there on leaving. At this point he became Principal of Hertford College, Oxford and Gresham professor of geometry at Gresham College London. He retired from this post at Gresham College in 1994 and from his position of Principal of Hertford College in 1995.
Zeeman has held important roles within UK mathematics. He served on the SERC Mathematics Committee from 1982 to 1985 and, in 1990, he chaired the committee which set up the Isaac Newton Institute in Cambridge. He continues to serve on the Steering Committee for the Isaac Newton Institute.
Zeeman's research has been in a variety of areas such as topology, in particular PL topology, dynamical systems and mathematical applications to biology and the social sciences. His initial research was in topology and one of his theorems was the unknotting of spheres in five dimensions. Certainly his work in topology would make him one of the leading topologists of all time but he may be known principally for other work.
Perhaps he is best known for his work on catastrophe theory for, although this theory was due initially to René Thom, it was Zeeman who brought it before the general public giving widespread publicity to applications of what was before that time thought of as pure mathematics. In particular Zeeman pioneered the applications of catastrophe theory in the biological and behavioural sciences, as well as the physical sciences. He invented the Zeeman Catastrophe machine which was a mechanical device to illustrate how a small perturbation can give rise to a discontinuous consequence.
Among the books which Zeeman has published are the texts Catastrophe theory (1977), Geometry and perspective (1987) and Gyroscopes and boomerangs (1989). One of his many memorable quotes, from his Catastrophe theory text, says much about mathematical philosophy:-
Technical skill is mastery of complexity while creativity is mastery of simplicity.
A shorter introduction to catastrophe theory than his 1977 book was given by Zeeman in his beautifully written survey article Bifurcation and catastrophe theory, Contemp. Math. (1981). The article introduces catastrophe theory in a unified way giving both elementary and non-elementary aspects. There is an elementary discussion of the cusp and the pitchfork and a statement of the classification theorem for elementary catastrophes.
In 1978, Zeeman gave the Christmas Lectures at the Royal
Institution, out of which grew the Mathematics Master classes for 13-year old
children that now flourishes in forty centres in the United Kingdom. He was the
63rd President of the London Mathematical Society in 1986-88 and delivered the
Presidential Address to the Society on 18 November 1988 On the classification
of dynamical systems.
He was awarded the Senior Whitehead
Prize of the London Mathematical Society in 1982. During his period as president
of the Society, he became the Society's first Forder lecturer in 1987. Elected
to the Royal Society of London in 1975, he was awarded the Society's Faraday
Medal in 1988.
Zeeman was knighted in 1991 and he has received many honours in addition to those mentioned above. He has been awarded honorary degrees from many universities including Strasbourg (1974), Hull (1984), Warwick (1988), York (1988), Leeds (1990), Durham (1990) and Hartford (1992).
I [EFR] first met Chris Zeeman in 1965 when I went to Warwick as a postgraduate student. He leapt out of his office to greet the new postgraduates with "Hi, I'm Chris". He is an exceptional lecturer with a remarkable ability to convince his audience that they understand the deep concepts that he is explaining, either in a research seminar of talking to non-mathematicians.
The first year that Warwick opened for undergraduates, all the undergraduates and postgraduates could get into one lecture theatre. There was a course covering all aspects of study including arts, science and mathematics. Chris Zeeman gave the mathematics lectures and explained to an audience, most of whom had no more than a low level school mathematics qualification, knotting and unknotting spheres in high dimensions. The remarkable thing was that everyone said they understood what he was talking about!