Honorary degree citation - Charles Fox*

By: Maurice Cohen, June 1976

Mr. Chancellor, I have the honour to present to you Charles Fox, a mathematician who, through the distinction of his scholarship and the inspiration of his teaching has made a most important contribution to mathematics and to the development and growth of the mathematical community in Canada.

Charles Fox was educated in England, obtained his master's degree at Cambridge in the days of Hardy and Littlewood and his doctorate at the University of London in 1928. For the next twenty years he taught at Birkbeck College of the University of London. In 1949 he came to Canada and joined the faculty of McGill University where he remained until 1967. Since 1967 he has been associated with this University, first as Visiting and then as Adjunct Professor of Mathematics, continuing his research and teaching.

Charles Fox's contribution to the advancement of mathematics has been significant and varied. He has published over forty papers in prestigious journals and is still active mathematically. The main results of his original research are in the area of Transforms and Integral Equations. He has developed powerful methods for solving integral and dual integral equations using various operators and their inverses. His versatility and his interest in the applications of mathematics are demonstrated by his papers on navigation, and on the theory of balancing for radar scanners.

In recognition of his achievement in mathematics he was elected to the Royal Society of Canada in 1961.

Charles Fox shares his deep love of mathematics generously and unhesitatingly with everyone. His outstanding gifts as an expositor and teacher are well known and emerge in the pages of two published textbooks. During his association with this University he has been instrumental in the development of the graduate programme in Mathematics, being a constant source of inspiration to the students and colleagues who have been priviliged to work with him.

As a group of his students appropriately wrote to him on the occasion of his 65th birthday, we "wish him infinitely many happy returns".

Mr. Chancellor, I am honoured to present to you, on behalf of the University Senate, and by authority of the Board of Governors, Charles Fox, that you may confer on him the degree of Doctor of Laws, honoris causa.

* Deceased