Charles Coulson

Who was Charles Coulson?

Charles Alfred Coulson FRS was a British applied mathematician, theoretical chemist and religious author.

His major scientific work was as a pioneer of the application of the quantum theory of valency to problems of molecular structure, dynamics and reactivity. He shared his deep religious belief, as a Methodist lay preacher, with the general public in radio broadcasts, served on the World Council of Churches from 1962 to 1968 and was Chairman of Oxfam from 1965 to 1971.

Coulson went up to Trinity College, Cambridge in 1928, graduated in mathematics in 1931 and natural sciences in 1932, going on to receive a Ph.D. in 1936. He married Eileen Florence Burrett in 1938.

Coulson was a Senior Lecturer in the Mathematics Department of University College, Dundee, which was administratively part of the University of St. Andrews from 1938 to 1945. He held a Fellowship at the University of Oxford from 1945 to 1947, when he took up the newly appointed Chair of Theoretical Physics at King's College London. He returned to Oxford in 1952 as Rouse Ball Professor of Mathematics and Fellow of Wadham College. He set up and directed the Mathematical Institute.