Get all your news in one place.
100’s of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Science
Mary Stewart

John Stewart obituary

In his book on computing, John Stewart tried to help others understand and use methods he had found valuable
In his book on computing, John Stewart tried to help others understand and use methods he had found valuable

My husband, John Stewart, who has died aged 73 from cancer, was reader emeritus in gravitational physics at Cambridge University, and a fellow of King’s College for more than 40 years.

John was born and brought up in Pinner, at that time in Middlesex. His father, James Stewart, was a Glaswegian who had been apprenticed at John Brown’s shipyard but left Scotland in the 1930s and thereafter worked mainly for United Dairies as an engineer. His mother, Hilda (nee Hale), was a London-trained nurse from Merthyr Vale in south Wales. John was the eldest of their three sons.

He was educated at Latymer Upper school, west London, before taking up a scholarship at Jesus College, Cambridge, and subsequently a junior research fellowship at Sidney Sussex College. He spent several years in Germany at the Max Planck Institute for Physics and Astrophysics in Munich, before he returned to Cambridge in 1975.

His work on numerical relativity was much admired, and influenced the subsequent careers of many younger academics; he also published widely on relativistic hydrodynamics and relativistic perturbation theory. He continued working until the week before his death, having recently completed a revised edition of his book on computing, Python for Scientists (2014). At the heart of this was his desire to help others understand and use tools and methods that he had found valuable.

Many colleagues and former students have commented on his superb teaching skills: enthusiasm combined with rigour, clarity, patience and humour. He relished good conversation with students and colleagues, which was always leavened by his sharp insights and ironic humour.

When John and I met in 1968, he was a junior research fellow at Sidney Sussex, and I a fellow of Newnham College. We were introduced at a dinner party given by a mutual friend and were married in Cambridge in 1970.

Apart from mathematics, John’s great loves were music, from Bach to Bartók and Berg, and mountain walking. We spent many long periods in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Though ill health curtailed this pleasure in later years, until his final week John retained a lively interest in the wider world and politics, always underpinned by a profound concern for social justice.

He is survived by me and by his younger brother, Robert.

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100’s of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
One subscription that gives you access to news from hundreds of sites
Already a member? Sign in here
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.