Richardson, Lewis Fry (1881-1953: mathematician, physicist and psychologist)

Lewis Fry Richardson was born in Newcastle in 1887 into a prosperous merchant quaker family. He was educated at Bootham School, York, and fell under the influences of science, and in particular, meteorology, through the lessons of master J Edmund Clark . In 1898 he attended Durham College of Science to study mathematics, physics, chemistry, zoology and botany, before graduating from King's College, Cambridge with a first class degree in the Natural Science Tripos in 1903 .

Richardson's early working life reflected his eclectic interests: he worked at the National Physical Laboratory from 1903-1904 and then again from 1907-1909 ; at the National Peat Industries from 1906-1907 as a chemist and for the Meteorological Office at Benson, Oxfordshire, as superintendent of the Eskdalemuir Observatory from 1913-1916 . From 1916-1919 he served in the Friends Ambulance Unit before rejoining the Meteorological Office. From 1920-1940 he was the Principal of Paisley College of Technology. In 1926 he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society. In 1940 he retired from Paisley to continue his own research at Kilmun, Argyll, where he died in September 1953 .

Lewis Fry Richardson made three significant contributions to physics: he developed the application of the method of finite differences to the solution of physical problems, especially in meteorology; he helped to advance knowledge of atmospheric diffusion, particularly eddy-diffusion and he developed the application of mathematics to the study of the relations between nations.