| Authorised form of name | Brown; Ernest William (1866 - 1938); mathematician and astronomer |
| Dates | 1866 - 1938 |
| Nationality | British |
| Place of birth | Hull, Yorkshire, England |
| Date of birth | 29 November 1866 |
| Place of death | Yale observatory, New Haven, Connecticut, USA |
| Date of death | 22 July 1938 |
| Occupation | mathematician and astronomer |
| Research field | Mathematics |
| Astronomy |
| Celestial mechanics |
| Activity | Education: Totteridge Park School, Hertfordshire; Hull and East Riding College; Christ's College, Cambridge (1884)
Career: Took up study of the American astronomer George William Hill’s papers on the lunar theory, on suggestion of George Darwin (FRS 1879) (1888); professor of applied mathematics at Haverford College, Pennsylvania (1891); appointed professor of mathematics at Yale University (1907-1932); retired owing to ill health (1932).
Awards/Medals:
Gold medal of the Royal Astronomical Society (1907)
Pontecoulant prize of the Paris Academy of Sciences (1909)
Bruce medal of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific (1920)
Watson medal of the National Academy of Sciences, Washington (1937) |
| Membership category | Fellow |
| Date of election | 09/06/1898 |
| Age at election | 32 |
| Proposer | George Howard Darwin; Robert Stawell Ball; Andrew Russell Forsyth; Joseph Lamor; Ernest William Hobson; James Whitbread Lee Glaisher; Edward James Stone; William Henry Mahoney Christie; Edward John Routh |
| Royal Society activity | Medals and prizes:
Royal Medal 1914 |
| Relationships | Parents: William Brown, farmer, and later a lumber merchant of Hull, and Emma Martin. |
| Published works | RCN 30429 |
| General context | Known for Lunar theory and Celestial mechanics. |
| Royal Society Obituary or Memoir | Click to view (may be contained within a meeting notice, presidential address or list of death notices) |
| Related images | Discover a selection of related images in our picture library |
| Image | 
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| Sources | Sources:
Bulloch's Roll; DSB
Authority:
Death date from DSB
Obituaries:
Obituary Notices of Fellows of the Royal Society 1939-1941 vol 3 pp 19-22, plate, by C G Darwin
Notes:
YB and TR give date of death as 24 July 1938. |
| Royal Society code | NA1720 |
| Reference number | Title | Date |
| EC/1898/04 | Brown, Ernest William: certificate of election to the Royal Society | |
| IM/Maull/000601 | Brown, Ernest William | nd |
| NLB/16/596 | Copy letter of a notice from Robert William Frederick Harrison, to [The Times] | 5 May 1898 |
| NLB/19/224 | Copy letter from Michael Foster, to Professor Ernest William Brown, Fellow of the Royal Society | 13 July 1899 |
| NLB/19/348 | Copy letter from Michael Foster, to the Secretary of the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences | 19 August 1899 |
| NLB/19/390 | Copy letter from Michael Foster, to Professor Ernest William Brown, [Fellow of the Royal Society] | 9 September 1899 |
| NLB/28/540 | Copy letter from Joseph Larmor, to Professor Ernest William Brown, Fellow of the Royal Society | 25 March 1904 |
| NLB/28/599 | Copy letter from Joseph Larmor, to Professor Ernest William Brown, Fellow of the Royal Society | 15 April 1904 |
| NLB/32/418 | Copy letter from Robert William Frederick Harrison, to Professor Ernest Brown, Fellow of the Royal Society | 27 February 1906 |
| MC/19/94 | Letter from Ernest [William] Brown, Haverford College, Haverford, to Robert [William Frederick] Harrison, Assistant Secretary of the Royal Society, Burlington House, London | 13 May 1904 |
| NLB/36/745 | Copy letter from Robert William Frederick Harrison, to Messrs Harrison & Sons | 10 December 1907 |
| NLB/45/386 | Copy letter from Robert William Frederick Harrison to Professor E [Ernest] W [William] Brown FRS | 26 February 1912 |
| NLB/50/808 | Copy letter from Arthur Schuster, to Professor Ernest William Brown, Fellow of the Royal Society | 5 November 1914 |
| NLB/50/223 | Copy letter from Robert William Frederick Harrison, to Professor [Ernest William] Brown, Fellow of the Royal Society | 26 May 1914 |
| NLB/50/360 | Copy letter from Robert William Frederick Harrison, to Professor [Ernest William] Brown, Fellow of the Royal Society, Christ's College, Cambridge | 24 June 1914 |
| NLB/51/137 | Copy letter from Robert William Frederick Harrison, Assistant Secretary of the Royal Society to Professor Ernest William Brown FRS | 18 December 1914 |
| NLB/51/256 | Copy letter from Robert William Frederick Harrison, Assistant Secretary of the Royal Society to Professor Ernest William Brown | 25 January 1915 |
| NLB/60/854 | Copy letter from Francis Alexander Towle, Assistant Secretary of the Royal Society; to Professor [Ernest William] Brown, FRS | 15 April 1921 |
| NLB/60/517 | Copy letter from James Hopwood Jeans, Secretary of the Royal Society; to Professor [Ernest William] Brown, FRS | 17 February 1921 |
| NLB/60/613 | Copy letter from James Hopwood Jeans, Secretary of the Royal Society; to Professor John Lloyd Newcomb, Chairman of the Centennial Committee; University of Virginia | 3 March 1921 |
| IM/000600 | Brown, Ernest William | nd |
| EC/1898/05 | Brown, Ernest William: certificate of election to the Royal Society | |
| MS/603/1/135 | Letter from Ernest W [William] Brown, 116 Everit Street, Yale University, New Haven, to [Joseph] Larmor | 19 January 1910 |
| MS/603/1/136 | Letter from Ernest W [William] Brown, 116 Everit Street, Yale University, New Haven, to [Joseph] Larmor | 20 January 1915 |
| MC/19/93 | Letter from Ernest [William] Brown, Haverford College, Haverford, to Professor [Joseph] Larmor, Secretary of the Royal Society | 6 April 1904 |
| MC/27/36 | Letter from Ernest [William] Brown, Yale University, 116 Everit Street, New Haven, [Connecticut], to The Secretaries, The Royal Society, Burlington House, London, W | 9 March 1912 |
| MC/27/37 | Letter from Ernest [William] Brown, Yale University, 116 Everit Street, New Haven, [Connecticut], to The Secretaries, The Royal Society, Burlington House, London, W | 25 March 1912 |
| MC/29/29 | Letter from Ernest [William] Brown, Yale University, 116 Everit Street, New Haven, [Connecticut], to The Secretaries, Royal Society, Burlington House, London, W, England | 23 November 1914 |
| MC/29/28 | Letter from [Ernest William] Brown, 116 Everit Street, New Haven, [Connecticut], to Robert Harrison, Burlington House, London, W, England | 8 June 1914 |
| MC/29/207 | Letter from [Henry Frederick] Ponsonby, the Keeper of the Privy Purse, Privy Purse Office, Buckingham Palace, to The Secretary, Royal Society, W | 7 November 1914 |
| MC/19 | Volume 19 of miscellaneous correspondence regarding business matters, sent to the Royal Society | 1904 |
| MC/30/32 | Letter from Ernest [William] Brown, Yale University, 116 Everit Street, New Haven Connecticut, to The Assistant Secretary, Royal Society, Burlington House, London, W, England | 5 January 1915 |
| MC/30/33 | Letter from Ernest [William] Brown, Yale University, 116 Everit Street, New Haven Connecticut, to [Robert] Harrison, [Assistant Secretary], Royal Society, Burlington House, London, W, England | 15 January 1915 |
| MC/30/34 | Letter from Ernest [William] Brown, Yale University, 116 Everit Street, New Haven Connecticut, to The Secretary, The Royal Society, Burlington House, London, W, England | 1 March 1915 |
| MC/30/3 | Letter from Walter H Page, Embassy of the United States of America, to The Secretaries of The Royal Society, Burlington House, W | 23 January 1914 |