Augustus Edward Hough Love (17 April 1863, Weston-super-Mare - 5 June 1940, Oxford), often known as A. E. H. Love, was a mathematician famous for his work on the mathematical theory of elasticity. He also worked on wave propagation and his work on the structure of the Earth in Some Problems of Geodynamics won for him the Adams prize in 1911 when he developed a mathematical model of surface waves known as Love waves. This work was published as a book with the help of the Cambridge University Press in 1911. It was published again in 1967 by Dover, New York, USA. Love waves were discussed in Chapter 11 of this book.

Love also contributed to the theory of tidal locking, introducing the parameters known as Love numbers, which are widely used today.

He was educated at Wolverhampton Grammar School and in 1881 won a scholarship to St John's College, Cambridge, where he was at first undecided whether to study classics or mathematics. His successful progress (he was placed Second Wrangler)[1] vindicated his choice of mathematics, and in 1886 he was elected Fellow of the college. In 1899 he was appointed Sedleian Professor of Natural Philosophy in the University of Oxford, a position which he retained until his death in 1940. He was also a Fellow of Queen's College.

He authored the two volume classic, A Treatise on the Mathematical Theory of Elasticity.

His other awards include the Royal Society Royal Medal in 1909 and Sylvester Medal in 1937, the London Mathematical Society De Morgan Medal in 1926. He was secretary to the London Mathematical Society between 1895 and 1910, and president for 1912-1913.

Notes

1. ^ Love, Augustus Edward Hough in Venn, J. & J. A., Alumni Cantabrigienses, Cambridge University Press, 10 vols, 1922–1958.

References

* A.E.H. Love, "Some problems of geodynamics", first published in 1911 by the Cambridge University Press and published again in 1967 by Dover, New York, USA.

External links

* O'Connor, John J.; Robertson, Edmund F., "Augustus Edward Hough Love", MacTutor History of Mathematics archive, University of St Andrews, http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Love.html .
* Augustus Edward Hough Love at the Mathematics Genealogy Project