Stephen Theodore Siklos

Stephen Theodore Chesmer Siklos (27 March 1950 – 17 August 2019) was a British mathematician, astrophysicist and university administrator. For his doctorate, he undertook research into general relativity under Stephen Hawking. After completing two postdoctoral positions, he spent the remainder of his career at the University of Cambridge. He was at various times a lecturer in the Faculty of Mathematics, Director of Studies for Mathematics at Newnham College and Jesus College and Senior Tutor at Jesus College. He is best known for his work in setting up and administering the Sixth Term Examination Papers, used for undergraduate mathematics admissions at several British universities.

Early life and education Siklos was born in Epsom, Surrey, England in 1950, the son of Theodore Siklos, the first principal of Crawley College of Further Education, and Ruth Siklos (née Purser), an almoner.

Academic career In 1973, he began a PhD into general relativity, supervised by Stephen Hawking. In 1976, his dissertation, entitled "Singularities, Invariants and Cosmology", led to a long-term interest in schemes for assessing the relative generality of solutions of Einstein's equations and to the study of what are now known as Siklos invariants, Siklos universes and Siklos waves. In the same year he was awarded the Pilkington Teaching Prize for the "outstanding quality" of his teaching. He served as the college's Director of Studies in Mathematics, and later as its Senior Tutor. In 2017 and 2018 he was its President, the highest college office below that of Master.

During his time at DAMTP, he served as Chair of the Teaching Committee, Faculty Admissions Officer and Mathematics Subject Convenor for the Admissions Forum. He is credited with successfully guiding the faculty through the national Teaching Assessment Exercise and the subsequent changes to the undergraduate Tripos. He led the project for 32 years during which he steered STEP through major changes in schools' mathematics curricula. He was involved in every stage of the examination process, including drafting questions, scrutinising the final papers and directing the marking and grading. Seen as "the public face of STEP", he gave talks about the project at faculty open days, led the faculty's long-running STEP Easter School and established its STEP support programme.

Written to mark the centenary of Philippa Fawcett becoming the first woman to obtain the top score in the Cambridge Mathematical Tripos.

A guide for STEP candidates, aimed at equipping students to take STEP even if their school could not provide the necessary support or guidance. The book contains selected past questions, with each question being accompanied by a comment and a full solution. This 2019 edition is a revised and extended version of two earlier editions by Siklos. It is available in PDF format to STEP candidates free of charge.

Personal life and death His extracurricular interests included music (he played the violin and viola), bridge and tennis.

Stephen Siklos died from cancer in 2019. He was survived by his wife, Professor Marian Holness, their two sons Arthur and Edward, by the children from his first marriage to Catherine (née Marshall), Tabitha and Jonathan, and his brother Paul.