Institute of Mathematics, Warwick University

After my early years in Bingley, I went to study mathematics at Warwick University. My personal tutor was Professor Colin Rourke.

He taught undergraduate analysis, using a method he had developed for the Open University.

I very much enjoyed the mathematics at Warwick, my introduction to rigorous, axiomatic based mathematics.

It was Christopher Zeeman that had put together the Mathematics Institute and who set the scene for the undergraduate course with the Foundations of Mathematics.

I particularly enjoyed algebraic topics, such as Galois Theory and Fermat’s Last Theorem. I could follow proofs and ideas, always marvelled at the wonderful twists that would lead to an elusive proof.

I graduated with first class honours and left acacdemia until many years later that I discovered Professor Rourke’s work in cosmology.