Rosa M. Morris

Rosa Margaret Morris (16 July 1914 – 15 October 2011) was a Welsh applied mathematician, working in potential theory and aerodynamics. When she was 23, her research and examination results made national and international news. She received several fellowships and awards before graduating with a PhD in mathematics from the University of Cambridge in 1940. In her later career, she taught at the University College of South Wales and Monmouthshire (now Cardiff University), where she co-authored a successful textbook on Mathematical Methods of Physics with Roy Chisholm and became one of the first female Heads of School of Mathematics in the United Kingdom.

Early life and education Morris was born in Rogerstone, Monmouthshire, and her mother was a schoolmistress. Morris first attended Rogerstone School, then Pontywaun County School, Pontymister, Risca,

During this time, Morris, aged 23, published her first articles, on potential theory and aerodynamics. Her approach showed "the advantages of using the complex variable in ... boundary problems of mathematical physics" and made national news with human interest stories focusing on her as a "mathematical genius", having "found a method of solving problems in aerodynamics which have hitherto defied all mathematicians". She was described as a "keen hockey player and accomplished dressmaker", and University College of South Wales and Monmouthshire Principal Frederick Rees stated that at her examination, she would have been entitled to 130 percent compared to the next best student, and a special case had to be made for her to avoid handicapping other students. Short reports on her achievements were also printed in American local newspapers.

Morris won scholarships worth £600 for the first year at Girton College, Cambridge, Her fellowships and awards included a University of Wales Fellowship (1938–1940) and a Department of Scientific and Industrial Research Senior Research Award (1939–1941). Her Cambridge advisor was Geoffrey Ingram Taylor. Perhaps to save her family money, Morris went to Cambridge by bike. where she stayed for the rest of her career. She supervised the 1955 PhD thesis of David Edmunds, who later won the Pólya Prize. Together with Roy Chisholm, Morris wrote a textbook titled Mathematical Methods in Physics. It was lacking in rigour, and the reviewer for Mathematics of Computation called the mathematical content "not always adequate, and sometimes ... incorrect", giving as an example an untrue claim about the convergence of Fourier series for a continuous function. Commercially, the book was a success and was reprinted several times. According to Chisholm, "in the late 1960's, North-Holland told us that we had broken their publication record for technical books. We even made a little money." In 1972–1973, while Morris was a Reader in Fluid Dynamics, she served as one of the first female heads of a mathematics department in the UK, possibly the first at a university. Morris retired in 1975. of the Mathematical Association, where she was President of the Cardiff Branch 1955–1956, and a Fellow of the Cambridge Philosophical Society until 1983. She was a prolific contributor to Mathematical Reviews, with 188 contributions credited to her name.

Personal life and legacy

Morris was a life-long member of the congregation at Bethesda Baptist Church in Rogerstone. When she returned to Wales after completing her PhD studies in Cambridge, she lived in Rogerstone again, where she was a carer for her sister Olwen. The PhD was still an uncommon degree for British mathematicians at the time, and Morris is among only seven women who received Mathematics PhD degrees in Britain until 1940, and one of two from Cambridge.

Publications Morris published research articles on potential theory, fluid dynamics (especially moving aerofoils), and mathematical elasticity theory.