Professor Bill Parry
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Professor Bill Parry
11-plus-failure mathematician FRS
Published: 08 September 2006
WilliamParry, mathematician: born Coventry 3 July 1934; Lecturer, BirminghamUniversity 1960-65; Senior Lecturer in Mathematics, Sussex University1965-68; Reader in Mathematics, Warwick University 1968-70, Professorof Mathematics 1970-99 (Emeritus); FRS 1984; married 1958 Benita Teper(one daughter): died Coventry 20 August 2006.
Bill Parry had a meagre school education but went on be an outstandingmathematician in the field of dynamical systems and a Fellow of theRoyal Society. He specialised in ergodic theory, which has closeconnections with probability theory, statistical mechanics, numbertheory, differential equations and information theory.
Parry was born in Coventry in 1934, the sixth of a family of sevenchildren. He failed his 11-plus examination and at the age of 13 wentto a technical school which specialised in woodwork and metalwork butwhere a teacher noticed his mathematical ability and persuaded him tostay in the sixth form. Because the school was unable to provide propertuition in mathematics, Parry was obliged to take classes at BirminghamTechnical College, and, after obtaining the requisite passes, he was,despite the limitations of his schooling, admitted to UniversityCollege London to study Mathematics, where he was encouraged by HymanKestelman.
After graduating in 1955 he did a one-year MSc course at LiverpoolUniversity before studying for his doctorate at Imperial College,London, under the guidance of Yael Dowker. His first post was as aLecturer in the Mathematics Department at Birmingham University.
The academic year 1962-63, spent at Yale University, was veryimportant in Parry's mathematical development because he had closecontact with Shizuo Kakutani and several young American mathematicianswho were working in the same area. He returned to Birmingham with anenhanced enthusiasm for mathematics and began to supervise researchstudents.
Parry's early research work was in several areas of ergodic theorythat turned out to be of major importance. He was the first to studytopological Markov chains, later called subshifts of finite type, andthese became significant in some coding theory problems and as modelsfor parts of smooth dynamical systems with hyperbolic behaviour. Heshowed that each irreducible topological Markov chain has a uniquemeasure of maximal entropy and these measures, which are now calledParry measures, can be described in a simple way using matrix theory.
In 1965 he moved to the newly founded Sussex University as SeniorLecturer. There he worked on entropy theory showing, amongst otherthings, that each aperiodic measure-preserving transformation could beviewed as the shift on the realisation space of a stationary, countablestate, stochastic process indexed by the integers or the naturalnumbers. He moved to Warwick University, in his home city of Coventry,in the spring of 1968 and spent the remainder of his career there.
Warwick had been founded at much the same time as Sussex and had athriving research environment through its Mathematical Research Centre,and Parry, who previously had disliked the pretensions of common rooms,was at home in the atmosphere of discussions, both mathematical andgeneral, in the large comfortable space adorned with many largeblackboards in the Mathematics Institute.
Among his contributions during these years was fundamental work oncodings between symbolic systems. Sometimes the efficiency of a code isvery important. For example, in the theory of computing, sentences inEnglish need to be changed into strings of zeros and ones, andconversely strings of zeros and ones need to be translated intosentences in English, and this needs to be done as efficiently aspossible. Parry was instrumental in developing a theory of differenttypes of codings between symbolic systems.
In another area he also showed how to use ideas and techniques fromanalytic number theory to study the distribution of periodic orbits ofdynamical systems with hyperbolic properties. He showed that ananalogue of the Prime Number Theorem holds.
Over about 40 years, he trained a steady stream of excellentresearch students, most of whom have academic positions in Britain andother countries, and he kept a keen interest in their careers. He knewhow to motivate people to do mathematics, when to cajole and when tocriticise, and he had an infectious enthusiasm for beautifulmathematical constructions and theories.
He was appointed Professor at Warwick in 1970 and elected FRS in1984. He published over 80 research papers and four books. After hisretirement in 1999, he continued to teach an advanced course for afurther three years and he attended seminars until a few weeks beforehis death.
Bill Parry's father and brothers were active trade unionists, andsome members of his family were members of the Communist Party, whichhe joined while a student at University College. When in Liverpool hecame into contact with the Socialist Labour League which, to his laterregret, he joined. On the Aldermaston March in 1958 he met the love ofhis life, Benita, who had just arrived from South Africa, and theymarried later that year, urged on by Gerry Healy, who frowned oncohabiting as Bohemian. Their daughter, Rachel, was born in 1967.
Through Benita, who works in the field of postcolonial studies andwhose academic career began as Bill was nearing retirement, Billenlarged his circle of friends, participating in discussions onhistory, politics, philosophy, literature and art. It was his habit towork at home in his study, with Benita working in hers a short distanceaway. But their lives were not all earnest talk, and he and Benitaalways said they experienced the Sixties in the Seventies and Eighties,having spent the Sixties extricating themselves from the austerities oftheir previous political commitments, despite which they remainedstrongly and uncompromisingly socialist.
Both in Sussex and Warwick they lived in the countryside, and it wasBill's great pleasure to visit his daughter and granddaughters in NorthWales. Before and after retirement he immersed himself in poetry andlatterly wrote poems himself, some of which have been published.
Peter Walters
WilliamParry, mathematician: born Coventry 3 July 1934; Lecturer, BirminghamUniversity 1960-65; Senior Lecturer in Mathematics, Sussex University1965-68; Reader in Mathematics, Warwick University 1968-70, Professorof Mathematics 1970-99 (Emeritus); FRS 1984; married 1958 Benita Teper(one daughter): died Coventry 20 August 2006.
Bill Parry had a meagre school education but went on be an outstandingmathematician in the field of dynamical systems and a Fellow of theRoyal Society. He specialised in ergodic theory, which has closeconnections with probability theory, statistical mechanics, numbertheory, differential equations and information theory.
Parry was born in Coventry in 1934, the sixth of a family of sevenchildren. He failed his 11-plus examination and at the age of 13 wentto a technical school which specialised in woodwork and metalwork butwhere a teacher noticed his mathematical ability and persuaded him tostay in the sixth form. Because the school was unable to provide propertuition in mathematics, Parry was obliged to take classes at BirminghamTechnical College, and, after obtaining the requisite passes, he was,despite the limitations of his schooling, admitted to UniversityCollege London to study Mathematics, where he was encouraged by HymanKestelman.
After graduating in 1955 he did a one-year MSc course at LiverpoolUniversity before studying for his doctorate at Imperial College,London, under the guidance of Yael Dowker. His first post was as aLecturer in the Mathematics Department at Birmingham University.
The academic year 1962-63, spent at Yale University, was veryimportant in Parry's mathematical development because he had closecontact with Shizuo Kakutani and several young American mathematicianswho were working in the same area. He returned to Birmingham with anenhanced enthusiasm for mathematics and began to supervise researchstudents.
Parry's early research work was in several areas of ergodic theorythat turned out to be of major importance. He was the first to studytopological Markov chains, later called subshifts of finite type, andthese became significant in some coding theory problems and as modelsfor parts of smooth dynamical systems with hyperbolic behaviour. Heshowed that each irreducible topological Markov chain has a uniquemeasure of maximal entropy and these measures, which are now calledParry measures, can be described in a simple way using matrix theory.
In 1965 he moved to the newly founded Sussex University as SeniorLecturer. There he worked on entropy theory showing, amongst otherthings, that each aperiodic measure-preserving transformation could beviewed as the shift on the realisation space of a stationary, countablestate, stochastic process indexed by the integers or the naturalnumbers. He moved to Warwick University, in his home city of Coventry,in the spring of 1968 and spent the remainder of his career there.
Warwick had been founded at much the same time as Sussex and had athriving research environment through its Mathematical Research Centre,and Parry, who previously had disliked the pretensions of common rooms,was at home in the atmosphere of discussions, both mathematical andgeneral, in the large comfortable space adorned with many largeblackboards in the Mathematics Institute.
Among his contributions during these years was fundamental work oncodings between symbolic systems. Sometimes the efficiency of a code isvery important. For example, in the theory of computing, sentences inEnglish need to be changed into strings of zeros and ones, andconversely strings of zeros and ones need to be translated intosentences in English, and this needs to be done as efficiently aspossible. Parry was instrumental in developing a theory of differenttypes of codings between symbolic systems.
In another area he also showed how to use ideas and techniques fromanalytic number theory to study the distribution of periodic orbits ofdynamical systems with hyperbolic properties. He showed that ananalogue of the Prime Number Theorem holds.
Over about 40 years, he trained a steady stream of excellentresearch students, most of whom have academic positions in Britain andother countries, and he kept a keen interest in their careers. He knewhow to motivate people to do mathematics, when to cajole and when tocriticise, and he had an infectious enthusiasm for beautifulmathematical constructions and theories.
He was appointed Professor at Warwick in 1970 and elected FRS in1984. He published over 80 research papers and four books. After hisretirement in 1999, he continued to teach an advanced course for afurther three years and he attended seminars until a few weeks beforehis death.
Bill Parry's father and brothers were active trade unionists, andsome members of his family were members of the Communist Party, whichhe joined while a student at University College. When in Liverpool hecame into contact with the Socialist Labour League which, to his laterregret, he joined. On the Aldermaston March in 1958 he met the love ofhis life, Benita, who had just arrived from South Africa, and theymarried later that year, urged on by Gerry Healy, who frowned oncohabiting as Bohemian. Their daughter, Rachel, was born in 1967.
Through Benita, who works in the field of postcolonial studies andwhose academic career began as Bill was nearing retirement, Billenlarged his circle of friends, participating in discussions onhistory, politics, philosophy, literature and art. It was his habit towork at home in his study, with Benita working in hers a short distanceaway. But their lives were not all earnest talk, and he and Benitaalways said they experienced the Sixties in the Seventies and Eighties,having spent the Sixties extricating themselves from the austerities oftheir previous political commitments, despite which they remainedstrongly and uncompromisingly socialist.
Both in Sussex and Warwick they lived in the countryside, and it wasBill's great pleasure to visit his daughter and granddaughters in NorthWales. Before and after retirement he immersed himself in poetry andlatterly wrote poems himself, some of which have been published.
Peter Walters
Professor Bill Parry
11-plus-failure mathematician FRS
Published: 08 September 2006
WilliamParry, mathematician: born Coventry 3 July 1934; Lecturer, BirminghamUniversity 1960-65; Senior Lecturer in Mathematics, Sussex University1965-68; Reader in Mathematics, Warwick University 1968-70, Professorof Mathematics 1970-99 (Emeritus); FRS 1984; married 1958 Benita Teper(one daughter): died Coventry 20 August 2006.
Bill Parry had a meagre school education but went on be an outstandingmathematician in the field of dynamical systems and a Fellow of theRoyal Society. He specialised in ergodic theory, which has closeconnections with probability theory, statistical mechanics, numbertheory, differential equations and information theory.
Parry was born in Coventry in 1934, the sixth of a family of sevenchildren. He failed his 11-plus examination and at the age of 13 wentto a technical school which specialised in woodwork and metalwork butwhere a teacher noticed his mathematical ability and persuaded him tostay in the sixth form. Because the school was unable to provide propertuition in mathematics, Parry was obliged to take classes at BirminghamTechnical College, and, after obtaining the requisite passes, he was,despite the limitations of his schooling, admitted to UniversityCollege London to study Mathematics, where he was encouraged by HymanKestelman.
After graduating in 1955 he did a one-year MSc course at LiverpoolUniversity before studying for his doctorate at Imperial College,London, under the guidance of Yael Dowker. His first post was as aLecturer in the Mathematics Department at Birmingham University.
The academic year 1962-63, spent at Yale University, was veryimportant in Parry's mathematical development because he had closecontact with Shizuo Kakutani and several young American mathematicianswho were working in the same area. He returned to Birmingham with anenhanced enthusiasm for mathematics and began to supervise researchstudents.
Parry's early research work was in several areas of ergodic theorythat turned out to be of major importance. He was the first to studytopological Markov chains, later called subshifts of finite type, andthese became significant in some coding theory problems and as modelsfor parts of smooth dynamical systems with hyperbolic behaviour. Heshowed that each irreducible topological Markov chain has a uniquemeasure of maximal entropy and these measures, which are now calledParry measures, can be described in a simple way using matrix theory.
In 1965 he moved to the newly founded Sussex University as SeniorLecturer. There he worked on entropy theory showing, amongst otherthings, that each aperiodic measure-preserving transformation could beviewed as the shift on the realisation space of a stationary, countablestate, stochastic process indexed by the integers or the naturalnumbers. He moved to Warwick University, in his home city of Coventry,in the spring of 1968 and spent the remainder of his career there.
Warwick had been founded at much the same time as Sussex and had athriving research environment through its Mathematical Research Centre,and Parry, who previously had disliked the pretensions of common rooms,was at home in the atmosphere of discussions, both mathematical andgeneral, in the large comfortable space adorned with many largeblackboards in the Mathematics Institute.
Among his contributions during these years was fundamental work oncodings between symbolic systems. Sometimes the efficiency of a code isvery important. For example, in the theory of computing, sentences inEnglish need to be changed into strings of zeros and ones, andconversely strings of zeros and ones need to be translated intosentences in English, and this needs to be done as efficiently aspossible. Parry was instrumental in developing a theory of differenttypes of codings between symbolic systems.
In another area he also showed how to use ideas and techniques fromanalytic number theory to study the distribution of periodic orbits ofdynamical systems with hyperbolic properties. He showed that ananalogue of the Prime Number Theorem holds.
Over about 40 years, he trained a steady stream of excellentresearch students, most of whom have academic positions in Britain andother countries, and he kept a keen interest in their careers. He knewhow to motivate people to do mathematics, when to cajole and when tocriticise, and he had an infectious enthusiasm for beautifulmathematical constructions and theories.
He was appointed Professor at Warwick in 1970 and elected FRS in1984. He published over 80 research papers and four books. After hisretirement in 1999, he continued to teach an advanced course for afurther three years and he attended seminars until a few weeks beforehis death.
Bill Parry's father and brothers were active trade unionists, andsome members of his family were members of the Communist Party, whichhe joined while a student at University College. When in Liverpool hecame into contact with the Socialist Labour League which, to his laterregret, he joined. On the Aldermaston March in 1958 he met the love ofhis life, Benita, who had just arrived from South Africa, and theymarried later that year, urged on by Gerry Healy, who frowned oncohabiting as Bohemian. Their daughter, Rachel, was born in 1967.
Through Benita, who works in the field of postcolonial studies andwhose academic career began as Bill was nearing retirement, Billenlarged his circle of friends, participating in discussions onhistory, politics, philosophy, literature and art. It was his habit towork at home in his study, with Benita working in hers a short distanceaway. But their lives were not all earnest talk, and he and Benitaalways said they experienced the Sixties in the Seventies and Eighties,having spent the Sixties extricating themselves from the austerities oftheir previous political commitments, despite which they remainedstrongly and uncompromisingly socialist.
Both in Sussex and Warwick they lived in the countryside, and it wasBill's great pleasure to visit his daughter and granddaughters in NorthWales. Before and after retirement he immersed himself in poetry andlatterly wrote poems himself, some of which have been published.
Peter Walters
WilliamParry, mathematician: born Coventry 3 July 1934; Lecturer, BirminghamUniversity 1960-65; Senior Lecturer in Mathematics, Sussex University1965-68; Reader in Mathematics, Warwick University 1968-70, Professorof Mathematics 1970-99 (Emeritus); FRS 1984; married 1958 Benita Teper(one daughter): died Coventry 20 August 2006.
Bill Parry had a meagre school education but went on be an outstandingmathematician in the field of dynamical systems and a Fellow of theRoyal Society. He specialised in ergodic theory, which has closeconnections with probability theory, statistical mechanics, numbertheory, differential equations and information theory.
Parry was born in Coventry in 1934, the sixth of a family of sevenchildren. He failed his 11-plus examination and at the age of 13 wentto a technical school which specialised in woodwork and metalwork butwhere a teacher noticed his mathematical ability and persuaded him tostay in the sixth form. Because the school was unable to provide propertuition in mathematics, Parry was obliged to take classes at BirminghamTechnical College, and, after obtaining the requisite passes, he was,despite the limitations of his schooling, admitted to UniversityCollege London to study Mathematics, where he was encouraged by HymanKestelman.
After graduating in 1955 he did a one-year MSc course at LiverpoolUniversity before studying for his doctorate at Imperial College,London, under the guidance of Yael Dowker. His first post was as aLecturer in the Mathematics Department at Birmingham University.
The academic year 1962-63, spent at Yale University, was veryimportant in Parry's mathematical development because he had closecontact with Shizuo Kakutani and several young American mathematicianswho were working in the same area. He returned to Birmingham with anenhanced enthusiasm for mathematics and began to supervise researchstudents.
Parry's early research work was in several areas of ergodic theorythat turned out to be of major importance. He was the first to studytopological Markov chains, later called subshifts of finite type, andthese became significant in some coding theory problems and as modelsfor parts of smooth dynamical systems with hyperbolic behaviour. Heshowed that each irreducible topological Markov chain has a uniquemeasure of maximal entropy and these measures, which are now calledParry measures, can be described in a simple way using matrix theory.
In 1965 he moved to the newly founded Sussex University as SeniorLecturer. There he worked on entropy theory showing, amongst otherthings, that each aperiodic measure-preserving transformation could beviewed as the shift on the realisation space of a stationary, countablestate, stochastic process indexed by the integers or the naturalnumbers. He moved to Warwick University, in his home city of Coventry,in the spring of 1968 and spent the remainder of his career there.
Warwick had been founded at much the same time as Sussex and had athriving research environment through its Mathematical Research Centre,and Parry, who previously had disliked the pretensions of common rooms,was at home in the atmosphere of discussions, both mathematical andgeneral, in the large comfortable space adorned with many largeblackboards in the Mathematics Institute.
Among his contributions during these years was fundamental work oncodings between symbolic systems. Sometimes the efficiency of a code isvery important. For example, in the theory of computing, sentences inEnglish need to be changed into strings of zeros and ones, andconversely strings of zeros and ones need to be translated intosentences in English, and this needs to be done as efficiently aspossible. Parry was instrumental in developing a theory of differenttypes of codings between symbolic systems.
In another area he also showed how to use ideas and techniques fromanalytic number theory to study the distribution of periodic orbits ofdynamical systems with hyperbolic properties. He showed that ananalogue of the Prime Number Theorem holds.
Over about 40 years, he trained a steady stream of excellentresearch students, most of whom have academic positions in Britain andother countries, and he kept a keen interest in their careers. He knewhow to motivate people to do mathematics, when to cajole and when tocriticise, and he had an infectious enthusiasm for beautifulmathematical constructions and theories.
He was appointed Professor at Warwick in 1970 and elected FRS in1984. He published over 80 research papers and four books. After hisretirement in 1999, he continued to teach an advanced course for afurther three years and he attended seminars until a few weeks beforehis death.
Bill Parry's father and brothers were active trade unionists, andsome members of his family were members of the Communist Party, whichhe joined while a student at University College. When in Liverpool hecame into contact with the Socialist Labour League which, to his laterregret, he joined. On the Aldermaston March in 1958 he met the love ofhis life, Benita, who had just arrived from South Africa, and theymarried later that year, urged on by Gerry Healy, who frowned oncohabiting as Bohemian. Their daughter, Rachel, was born in 1967.
Through Benita, who works in the field of postcolonial studies andwhose academic career began as Bill was nearing retirement, Billenlarged his circle of friends, participating in discussions onhistory, politics, philosophy, literature and art. It was his habit towork at home in his study, with Benita working in hers a short distanceaway. But their lives were not all earnest talk, and he and Benitaalways said they experienced the Sixties in the Seventies and Eighties,having spent the Sixties extricating themselves from the austerities oftheir previous political commitments, despite which they remainedstrongly and uncompromisingly socialist.
Both in Sussex and Warwick they lived in the countryside, and it wasBill's great pleasure to visit his daughter and granddaughters in NorthWales. Before and after retirement he immersed himself in poetry andlatterly wrote poems himself, some of which have been published.
Peter Walters