Person
Oates-Williams, Sheila (1939 - 2024)
- Born
- 15 January 1939
Ashton nr Breage, Cornwall, United Kingdom - Died
- 12 August 2024
Birtinya, Queensland, Australia - Occupation
- Mathematician
- Alternative Names
- Oates MacDonald, Sheila (Also known as, 1965 - 1972)
- Oates, Sheila (maiden name)
Summary
Sheila Oates-Williams was a mathematician who used her expertise in universal algebra to investigate combinatorial problems, especially combinatorial designs. Her research interests extended to varieties of groups and of universal algebras. She was best known for the Oates-Powell theorem, a group theoretic analogue of Hilbert's basis theorem which establishes that every finite group is "finitely based". Oates-Williams was also widely recognised for setting problems for mathematics competitions, particularly the Australian Mathematics Competition and the 1988 International Mathematical Olympiad held in Canberra. For 13 years she served on the Problems Committee for the Australian Mathematics Competition. In 2002 she received the B. H. Neumann Award from the Australian Mathematics Trust. Oates-Williams retired in 1997 as Reader in the Department of Mathematics at the University of Queensland, having been a member of the Department for 30 years.
Details
Chronology
- 1962 - 1966
- Career position - Lecturer (later Fellow), St Hilda's College, University of Oxford
- 1963
- Education - DPhil, University of Oxford
- 1967 - 1969
- Career position - Senior Lecturer, Department of Mathematics, University of Queensland
- 1967 - 2024
- Award - Member (later Life member), Australian Mathematical Society
- 1969 - 1997
- Career position - Reader, Department of Mathematics, University of Queensland
- 1981 - 1984
- Career position - Associate Editor, Bulletin of the Australian Mathematical Society
- 1985 - 1989
- Career position - Member of Council, Australian Mathematical Society
- 1985 - 1989
- Career position - Editor, Bulletin of the Australian Mathematical Society
- 1997
- Life event - Retired
- 2002
- Award - B. H Neumann Award for Excellence in Mathematics Enrichment, Australian Mathematics Trust
Related entries
Published resources
Journal Articles
- Donovan, D., Praeger, C. E. and Oates-Williams, S., 'On the distance between distinct group Latin squares', Journal of combinatorial designs, 5 (1997), 235-48, https://doi.org/10.1002/(SICI)1520-6610(1997)5:4<235::AID-JCD1>3.0.CO;2-G. Details
- Donovan, Diane and Praeger, Cheryl, 'Sheila Oates-Williams 1939 - 2024', Gazette of the Australian Mathematical Society, 52 (1) (2025), 34-6. Details
- Oates, S. and Powell, M. B., 'Identical relations in finite groups', Journal of algebra, 1 (1964), 11-39, https://doi.org/10.1016/0021-8693(64)90004-3. Details
Resources
- BH Neumann Award recipients, Australian Mathematics Trust, 2025, https://www.amt.edu.au/history/bh-neumann. Details
Helen Cohn
Created: 13 May 2025