Arthur Milne

Edward Arthur Milne, a British mathematician (born in Hull, Yorks, England, February 14, 1896, died in Dublin, Ireland, Sept. 21, 1950), was a fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, 1919-25, being assistant director of the solar physics observatory. 1920-14, mathematical lecturer at Trinity, 1924-25, and university lecturer in astrophysics, 1922-25. He was Beyer professor of applied mathematics, Victoria University of Manchester, 1924-28, before his appointment to the Rouse Ball chair of mathematics and to a fellowship at Wadham College, Oxford, in 1928. Milne's earlier work was in mathematical astrophysics, for which he was awarded the Royal Astronomical society's gold medal in 1935. From 1932 he also worked on the problem of the "expanding universe" and in Relativity, Gravitation, and World-Structure (1935), proposed an alternative to Albert Einstein's general relativity theory. His later work, concerned with the interior structure of stars, aroused controversy. Milne received the Royal society's royal medal in 1941, and was president of the Royal Astronomical society, 1943-45.