Intersection between academia and international chess titles

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Have been trying without success to track down some of these theses...

Can anyone list the universities the above named players did their doctoral studies at? I know Nunn was famously Oxford, and Rowson was Bristol, but unsure of the others. It is not trivial as most sources seem to skip Jonathan Penrose's education. Mestel and McNab should be easier.

[Mick Norris]

Mestel obtained his PhD with the thesis "Magnetic Levitation of Liquid Metals" at University of Cambridge according to wiki

McNab is a doctor of Mathematics, having studied for a DPhil at the University of Oxford under the supervision of Peter Neumann, also wiki

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Thanks.

Colin McNab:

https://www.genealogy.math.ndsu.nodak.e ... p?id=46135

D.Phil. University of Oxford 1987 UnitedKingdom
Dissertation: Some Problems on Permutation Groups
Mathematics Subject Classification: 20—Group theory and generalizations
Advisor: Peter Michael Neumann

John Nunn:

https://www.genealogy.math.ndsu.nodak.e ... ?id=216891

D.Phil. University of Oxford 1978 UnitedKingdom
Dissertation: Some problems in algebraic topology
Mathematics Subject Classification: 55—Algebraic topology
Advisor 1: John Reginald Hubbuck

Jonathan Mestel:

https://www.genealogy.math.ndsu.nodak.e ... p?id=50504

Ph.D. University of Cambridge 1982 UnitedKingdom
Dissertation: Magnetic Levitation of Liquid Metals
Advisor: Michael R. E. Proctor

Mestel appears to be the only one who went on to supervise future doctoral students himself.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Jonathan Rowson:

https://bris.on.worldcat.org/oclc/931568504

From wisdom-related knowledge to wise acts : refashioning the concept of wisdom to improve our chances of becoming wiser

Ph.D. University of Bristol, 2009
School of Education
Supervised by cognitive scientist (and professor of Education) Guy Claxton

Still drawing a blank on Jonathan Penrose.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

The doctoral work by Jonathan Penrose turns out to be the most fascinating of the lot (to me):

https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=ItQ ... J&pg=PT131

He was (starting in 1958) the first doctoral student of Peter Cathcart Wason. And the link I gave above is to a biography of Wason that explains how this work helped prime aspects of Wason's future research.

Beyond Reasoning: The Life, Times and Work of Peter Wason, Pioneering Psychologist by Ken Manktelow (2020) actually contains a wealth of references to chess (and Jonathan Penrose) all well worth a read.

For the record, the Ph.D. thesis by Penrose:

Penrose, J. ( 1962 ) 'An investigation into some aspects of problem-solving behaviour', University of London

(EDIT: I think that like the other Penrose brothers, Jonathan attended first University College School and then University College, London, where Wason taught in whichever department Experimental Psychology was under then. Unlike his brothers (Oliver and Roger), who did their doctoral work at Cambridge, Jonathan appears to have stayed on at University College (where their father Lionel was a professor) to do his doctoral work. Their sister, Shirley, studied at Oxford.)

[Kevin Thurlow]

"Some problems in algebraic topology"

This reminds me that John Nunn commented that when one of his ending books was published, he got a phone call from a fellow GM saying the book was too difficult, and John responded, "Chess is difficult!"

[AustinElliott]

Mestel appears to be the only one who went on to supervise future doctoral students himself.

Not a surprise, as Mestel is the one who stayed to make a career in academia and ultimately became a full Professor. His dad Leon (1927-2017) was a very distinguished astrophysicist, of course, FRS and Eddington Medal.

If e.g. John Nunn had stayed a University academic, he would doubtless have supervised doctoral students too, as it's an expected part of the job description in an academic lecturer post. But wouldn't have been common to supervise doctoral students as an early career research fellow in the 70s, as JDMN was before he went chess pro.

[Roger de Coverly]

But wouldn't have been common to supervise doctoral students as an early career research fellow in the 70s, as JDMN was before he went chess pro.

Isn't the story that despite being at Oxford since he was 13 or 14, he was made redundant at the age of around 24 because of funding cuts in the early 1980s? So he had to find another profession.