Extraordinary General Meeting & Lecture by June Barrow-Green

We are convening an Extraordinary Meeting in which to elect a new trustee to Council and vote in amendments to our articles of association. Following the society business we are delighted that Professor June Barrow-Green (Open University) will offer the following talk: 

Ronald Ross and Hilda Hudson.   A collaboration on the mathematical theory of epidemics.

In 1916 the physician Ronald Ross published the first of three papers on the mathematical study of epidemiology or, as he called it, ‘pathometry’.  The second and third of these papers appeared the following year co-authored with the mathematician Hilda Hudson.   At the time Hudson, who had ranked equivalent to the 7th wrangler in the 1903 Mathematical Tripos, was well known for her work on Cremona Transformations.  So how and why did Hudson, a geometer, end up collaborating with Ross on the theory of epidemics? And what role did she play?  In answering these questions, I shall discuss the nature and extent of their collaboration, as well as the genesis, content, and significance of their work.

Please register to attend, online or in person, here: Extraordinary General Meeting & Lecture by June Barrow-Green | The British Society for the History of Mathematics.