Eric Stephen Barnes

Lieutenant Professor
Eric Stephen Barnes
BA PhD FAA
Acting Vice-Chancellor of
the University of Adelaide
In office
1975–1975
ChancellorJohn Jefferson Bray
Preceded bySir Geoffrey Badger
Succeeded bySir Geoffrey Badger
Personal details
Born(1924-01-16)16 January 1924
Cardiff, Wales, UK
Died16 October 2000(2000-10-16) (aged 76)
Adelaide, South Australia, Australia

LT Eric Stephen Barnes FAA (16 January 1924 – 16 October 2000) was a Welsh-born Australian pure mathematician, academic and cryptographer. He was awarded the Thomas Ranken Lyle Medal in 1959, and was (Sir Thomas) Elder Professor of Mathematics at the University of Adelaide. He was elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science in 1954.

He was born in 1924 in Cardiff, Wales (part of the modern United Kingdom; as from 1922), and died in 2000 in Adelaide, South Australia. He was educated at the Universities of Sydney and Cambridge.

Barnes enlisted in the Citizen Military Forces, and – during World War II – was commissioned as a lieutenant under the auspices of the Australian Army. He served with distinction from 1943–1945, lending his talents as a number theorist to military cryptography efforts. Barnes made significant contributions to the work of decoding encrypted Japanese communications.

He held appointments as a Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge (1950–54); assistant lecturer, Cambridge (1951–53); reader in pure mathematics, University of Sydney (1953–58); Elder Professor of Mathematics, University of Adelaide (UofA; 1959–74); Secretary (Physical Sciences), Australian Academy of Science (1972–76); Deputy Vice-chancellor, UofA (1975–80); Professor of Pure Mathematics, UofA (1981–83).

Arguably the highest-profile position of Barnes' civilian career was his role as UofA's Acting Vice-chancellor in 1975; temporarily backfilling Sir Geoffrey Badger.

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Eric Stephen Barnes, 1924-2000". Archived from the original on 5 March 2016. Retrieved 30 September 2026.
  2. 1 2 Eric Stephen Barnes, 1924–2000 Archived 29 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine, Australian Academy of Science (25 page biography)
  3. ↑ "Barnes, Eric Stephen". Encyclopedia of Australian Science and Innovation. Archived from the original on 24 August 2025. Retrieved 30 September 2026.
  4. ↑ Wall, G. E.; Pitman, Jane; Potts, R. B. (2004). "Eric Stephen Barnes 1924 - 2000". Historical Records of Australian Science. 15 (1): 21–45. doi:10.1071/HR03013. ISSN 0727-3061. Archived from the original on 22 February 2025. Retrieved 8 February 2025.
  5. ↑ "Australia's Mathematicians in World War 2" (PDF). Austms.org.au. Archived (PDF) from the original on 31 March 2023. Retrieved 12 July 2026.
  6. ↑ "Eric Barnes - Biography". Mathshistory.st-andrews.ac.uk. Archived from the original on 7 July 2026. Retrieved 12 July 2026.
  7. ↑ Barnes, E. S. (Eric Stephen) (1924–2000) Archived 20 December 2016 at the Wayback Machine, Trove.nla.gov.au