Jack Howlett, 1912-1999

Dr Jack Howlett, who died on 5 May 1999 at the age of 86, aFounder Fellow of the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications,was a mathematician with a special interest in numerical analysiswho early recognised the power of computing methods and whostrongly influenced the development of some mechanical computingmachines and electronic computers as we know them today. Thewidespread advance of the use of computer models in all scientificdisciplines was made possible thanks to the efforts of a smallnumber of mathematicians who laid the foundations of modernnumerical analysis during the late 1930s to early 1960s, a periodwhich covered the greater part of Jack's working life and inwhich he was a star player.