G. N. Watson
G. N. Watson | |
|---|---|
| Born | George Neville Watson 31 January 1886 Westward Ho!, England |
| Died | 2 February 1965 (aged 79) Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, England |
| Nationality | British |
| Alma mater | Trinity College, Cambridge |
| Known for | Whittaker and Watson text Watson's quintuple product identity |
| Awards | Smith's Prize (1909) Sylvester Medal (1946) De Morgan Medal (1947) Fellow of the Royal Society |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Mathematics |
| Institutions | University of Birmingham University of Cambridge |
| Doctoral advisor | E. T. Whittaker |
George Neville Watson FRS FRSE (31 January 1886 – 2 February 1965) was an English mathematician, who applied complex analysis to the theory of special functions. His collaboration on the 1915 second edition of E. T. Whittaker's A Course of Modern Analysis (1902) produced the classic "Whittaker and Watson" text. In 1918 he proved a significant result known as Watson's lemma, that has many applications in the theory on the asymptotic behaviour of exponential integrals.