Memorial Tribute: Alan Baker 1939–2018

Tribute to Alan Hall

In addition to being a remarkable scientist (as described by Chris Marshall in this issue), Alan was a kind and generous mentor, colleague, advisor, and friend. Here, several of Alan’s trainees, colleagues, and fellow JCB editors share their memories of him. What is clear from their accounts is that the scientific community and JCB have lost a beloved colleague—a gentleman scientist of sharp in...

Fred Sanger: a memorial tribute.

Alan Baker Mathematics , Indispensability and Scientific Progress

Are there good reasons for including mathematical objects such as numbers, sets, and functions as part of our ultimate catalogue of the furniture of the universe? Recent debates within the philosophy of mathematics over this sort of general ontological question have centered on the pros and cons of the so-called Indispensability Argument. The basic idea behind this argument is quite straightfor...

Memorial tribute to Dr. Michael Conrad

We lost a dear friend and colleague on December 28, 2000, when Professor Michael Conrad passed away after a battle with lymphoma. Michael was truly a giant in the field of evolutionary computation, a pioneer who endeavored to push the limits of our knowledge of biological information processing in all its forms. His contributions to evolutionary computation include the first known simulation of...

Sir James Lighthill and modern fluid mechanics: A memorial tribute

This memorial tribute commemorates Sir James Lighthill the man and the mathematical scientist. A brief biographical information is presented with my personal reminiscences. His major contributions to fluid mechanics with special reference to nonlinear dispersive waves are discussed. By any standards, his legacy of research and publications of six books and one hundred fifty papers will remain f...