Frank Featherstone Bonsall. 31 March 1920—22 February 2011

Abstract

Frank Bonsall played a significant role in the mathematical life of the United Kingdom in the decades following the Second World War. He had a particular impact in Scotland and the north of England, especially in research and graduate education. His research interests focused primarily on functional analysis, the area of mathematics that brings together various strands of analysis under a single abstract framework, and on the related theory of linear operators on Banach spaces. He influenced a generation of young mathematicians with the elegance of his written and oral expositions, both of his own research and that of others. The quality of his caring and thorough research supervision was reflected in his many PhD students who would continue in research and go on to successful academic careers in their own right, both in the United Kingdom and beyond.