Wales Institute of Mathematical and Computational Sciences

Jan Abas was born in Allahabad in India and spent a few years during early teens in Pakistan. Apart from a break of just over a year when he went back to Pakistan, Jan lived in the UK from the age of 16 onwards. He attended London University, Sir John Cass College and University College and obtained a Ph.D. in applied mathematics in 1967.

Jan subsequently served for 27 years as a lecturer in applied mathematics, computer science and computer graphics at Bangor University, retiring in 1993. His research work ranged over magneto-hydrodynamics, plasma physics, absorption of radiation in liquid crystals and computational physics. He was the first academic to run large computer physics codes (involving more than 100 Fortran subroutines) at Bangor and he had a pioneering role in the use of computer graphics in the teaching of applied mathematics in general terms. Starting out with just a PDP 11 driven vector graphics tube called the GT 44 system, Jan was able to make many abstract theoretical concepts come alive and visible. He developed the first course in Computational Fluid Dynamics for undergraduates in the UK. His courses were always extremely popular with students, and his enthusiasm for whatever he was talking about was infectious.

During his retirement, Jan remained active as an independent lecturer, author, designer and artist. He was able to pursue his lifelong interest in symmetry and Islamic art and many examples of his work are shown on his web site. He was the principal author of “Symmetries of Islamic Geometrical Patterns”, asignificant work published in 1995 showing how Islamic patterns are relevant for the world of today in science, art, mathematics and nature. Other books include “Computers in Health and Fitness”; and “Pascal: an Interactive Text - Text and Disk (A Computer Illustrated Text)”. The latter was the first text book to include a set of programs on a disk and catered for a local area network environment.

Jan continued to hold the position of an Honorary Research Fellow in the School of Computer Science at Bangor University. For 24 consecutive years he also taught a Royal Institution Mathematics Master Class on Symmetry to the most mathematically talented school children (age group 13-14) of North Wales. The practical part of the course involves the exploration, design and symmetry analysis of Frieze Patterns using computer graphics, and a Flash version of this application can be found on his web site.

Jan had battled against the effects of Parkinson’s disease for many years. Following a short period of illness, Jan Abas passed away at Ysbyty Gwynydd Hospital, Bangor on Saturday 9^th May 2009.

http://www.abasjanabas.com/