{{Short description|Professor of mathematics and astronomy (1936–2020)}} {{EngvarB|date=July 2017}} {{Use dmy dates|date=July 2017}} {{Infobox scientist |name = Nigel Weiss | birth_name = Nigel Oscar Weiss |image = Nigel_Weiss.gif |image_size = |caption = |birth_date = {{birth date|df=yes|1936|12|16}}<ref name="whoswho"/> |birth_place = South Africa |death_date = {{death date and age|2020|06|24|1936|12|16|df=yes}}{{R|Twitter}} |death_place = |residence = |citizenship = |nationality = |ethnicity = |fields = |workplaces = University of Cambridge |alma_mater = Clare College, Cambridge | thesis_title = Variable Hydromagnetic Motions | thesis_url = <!--(or | thesis1_url = and | thesis2_url = )--> | thesis_year = 1961 |doctoral_advisor = Edward Bullard<ref name="mathgene"/> |academic_advisor = |doctoral_students = {{Plainlist| * Paul Glendinning * Vivien Kirk * Richard Peckover<ref name="mathgene"/> * Mike Tildesley}} |notable_students = |known_for = flux expulsion |influences = |influenced = |awards = {{Plainlist| * FRS (1992) * Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society (2007)}} |religion = |signature = <!--(filename only)--> | website = {{URL|damtp.cam.ac.uk/user/now|Nigel Weiss's home page}} |footnotes = }} '''Nigel Oscar Weiss''' FRS<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Proctor |first=Michael |date=2023 |title=Nigel Oscar Weiss. 16 December 1936 — 24 June 2020 |journal=Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society |volume=74|pages=439–456 |doi=10.1098/rsbm.2022.0039 |doi-access=free }}</ref> (16 December 1936 – 24 June 2020){{R|whoswho|Twitter}} was an astronomer and mathematician, and leader in the field of astrophysical and geophysical fluid dynamics. He was Emeritus Professor of Mathematical Astrophysics at the University of Cambridge.<ref name=now/><ref name="scopus"/><ref name="SolarPhys"/>
==Education== Born in South Africa, Weiss studied at Hilton College, Natal, Rugby School and Clare College, Cambridge, and had been a fellow of Clare College since 1965. He read for his PhD in 1961 with a thesis on Variable Hydromagnetic Motions. <ref name="mathgene"/>
==Career== In 1987 he became Professor of Mathematical Astrophysics at the University of Cambridge.
Between 2000 and 2002 he was President of the Royal Astronomical Society, and in 2007 was awarded the Gold Medal, the society's highest award.<ref name=now/>
==Research== Weiss published extensively in the field of mathematical astrophysics, specialising in solar and stellar magnetic fields, astrophysical and geophysical fluid dynamics and nonlinear dynamical systems.<ref name=now/>
In 1966 he was the first to demonstrate and describe the process of 'flux expulsion' by which a conducting fluid undergoing rotating motion acts to expel the magnetic flux from the region of motion, a process now known to occur in the photosphere of the Sun and other stars.<ref name="ProcRS"/>
==Awards and honours== Weiss was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 1992.<ref name="whoswho"/> His nomination reads {{centred pull quote|Professor Weiss is distinguished for his work in the theory of convection, for developing appropriate numerical techniques, and for pioneering their use in precise numerical experiments to gain a qualitative and comprehensive understanding of the behaviour of complicated nonlinear systems. Among many notable achievements in this field, he has been instrumental in the identification of a period-doubling route to chaos in a system of partial differential equations describing doubly-diffusive convection. He has made wide-ranging studies of the magneto-convective processes occurring in the Sun and similar stars. In early work of lasting influence, he analysed the process of magnetic flux expulsion and the mechanism of concentration of magnetic field into ropes from which fluid motion is excluded. In recent work, he has initiated a program of research in the field of nonlinear compressible convection, an important step towards realistic modelling of stellar convection zones.<ref name="royal"/>}}
==References== <references>
<ref name="mathgene"> {{MathGenealogy |id=50416}} </ref>
<ref name=now> {{cite web|url=http://www.damtp.cam.ac.uk/user/now/|title=Nigel Weiss's home page|date=23 June 2020 |publisher=DAMTP}} </ref>
<ref name="ProcRS"> {{Cite journal | doi = 10.1098/rspa.1966.0173| title = The Expulsion of Magnetic Flux by Eddies| journal = Proceedings of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences| volume = 293| issue = 1434| pages = 310–328| year = 1966| last1 = Weiss | first1 = N. O.|bibcode = 1966RSPSA.293..310W | s2cid = 121923566}} </ref>
<ref name="royal"> {{cite web |url=https://collections.royalsociety.org/DServe.exe?dsqIni=Dserve.ini&dsqApp=Archive&dsqDb=Catalog&dsqCmd=show.tcl&dsqSearch=(RefNo==%27EC%2F1992%2F38%27) |title=EC/1992/38: Weiss, Nigel Oscar. Library and Archive Catalogue |publisher=The Royal Society |archive-date=8 July 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190708141655/https://collections.royalsociety.org/DServe.exe?dsqIni=Dserve.ini&dsqApp=Archive&dsqDb=Catalog&dsqCmd=show.tcl&dsqSearch=%28RefNo%3D%3D%27EC%2F1992%2F38%27%29 |location=London |url-status=dead |df=dmy-all }} </ref>
<ref name="scopus"> {{Scopus|id=7201692694}} </ref>
<ref name="SolarPhys"> {{Cite journal | doi = 10.1023/A:1005026001784| year = 1998| last1 = Beer | first1 = J. R. | journal = Solar Physics| volume = 181| issue = 1|title=An Active Sun Throughout the Maunder Minimum| pages = 237–249| last2 = Tobias | first2 = S. | last3 = Weiss | first3 = N. | bibcode = 1998SoPh..181..237B| s2cid = 122019951| url = https://www.dora.lib4ri.ch/eawag/islandora/object/eawag%3A3949| url-access = subscription}} </ref>
<ref name="Twitter">{{cite web | title=Helen Mason – Nigel Weiss has died| website=Twitter | url=https://twitter.com/helen_hm11/status/1275865728965623808 | access-date=26 June 2020}}</ref>
<ref name="whoswho"> {{cite web |doi=10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.U39259|url=http://www.ukwhoswho.com/view/article/oupww/whoswho/U39259 |title=WEISS, Prof. Nigel Oscar|work=Who's Who 2014, A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc, 2014; online edn, Oxford University Press }}{{subscription required|accessdate=24 April 2019}} </ref>
</references>
{{FRS 1992}} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Weiss, Nigel Oscar}} Category:1936 births Category:2020 deaths Category:South African astronomers Category:South African mathematicians Category:Cambridge mathematicians Category:Recipients of the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society Category:Fellows of the Royal Society Category:Alumni of Clare College, Cambridge Category:Fellows of Clare College, Cambridge Category:Presidents of the Royal Astronomical Society Category:South African scientists category:South African Jews Category:White South African people Category:Alumni of Hilton College (South Africa) Category:People educated at Rugby School