Kenneth Falconer (mathematician)

Falconer is known for his work on the mathematics of fractals and in particular sets and measures arising from iterated function systems, especially self-similar and self-affine sets. Closely related is his research on Hausdorff and other fractal dimensions. He formulated ''Falconer's conjecture'' on the dimension of distance sets and conceived the notion of a digital sundial. In combinatorial geometry he established a lower bound of 5 for the chromatic number of the plane in the Lebesgue measurable case. ==Education and career==

Falconer was educated at Kingston Grammar School, Kingston upon Thames and Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. He graduated in 1974 and completed his PhD in 1979 under the supervision of Hallard Croft. He was a research fellow at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge from 1977 to 1980 before moving to Bristol University. He was appointed Professor of Pure Mathematics at the University of St Andrews in 1993 and was head of the School of Mathematics and Statistics from 2001 to 2004. He served on the council of the London Mathematical Society from 2000 to 2009 including as publications secretary from 2006 to 2009. ==Honours and awards==

Falconer was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1998. In 2020, he was awarded the Shephard Prize of the London Mathematical Society. Falconer was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2024 New Year Honours for services to mathematics. ==Personal life==

Falconer was born 25 January 1952 at Bearsted Memorial Maternity Hospital outside Hampton Court Palace. In 2021, he was appointed a Vice President of the LDWA. He has twice climbed all the Munros as well as all the Corbetts. == References ==

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