Charles Henry Herbert Cook (30 September 184321 May 1910) was an English-born, Australian-raised, New Zealand-based mathematician. He was born in Kentish Town, Middlesex, England, on 30 September 1843, but educated in Melbourne, Australia, where he got a BA and an LLB from University of Melbourne. He then went to St John's College, Cambridge, initially to train for the English Bar but became interested in mathematics.
In 1874, a year before being due to be called to the bar, Cook was appointed founding head of mathematics at Canterbury College, University of New Zealand (now Canterbury University). He joined co-founders John Macmillan Brown and Alexander Bickerton in Christchurch, New Zealand, and initially focused on Latin and mathematics. He was also involved in promoting the establishment of the University's engineering school. He is remembered primarily for his teaching; Nobel Prize–winning physicist Ernest Rutherford cited him as an influence: Cook was evidently a sound mathematician and an excellent teacher along orthodox lines, with no marked tendency to stray from those lines.Rutherford: Life and work to the year 1919, with personal reminiscences of the Manchester period. H. R. Robinson. Proceedings of the Physical Society, , 05/1943, Volume 55, Issue 3, pp. 161–182
He was involved in secondary education, acting as an examiner for the New Zealand Department of Education and holding a fellowship at the Anglican Christ's College, Christchurch from 1891 to 1908.
Cook was a member of the Royal Commission on Higher Education 1878–1800 and a member of the senate of the University of New Zealand.
In 1903, Cook appeared in the vanity press The Cyclopedia of New Zealand, with a photo and short article. He died in Marton, New Zealand, on 21 May 1910.
Cook Memorial Prize After his death in 1910 a memorial prize was established, with Ernest Rutherford among the contributors.
YearRecipient1912?Henry S. Richards1934T. E. Easterfield1940I. E. Robertson1941?Alister McLellan1947David Spence1993Alistair O'Malley1994Michael Burns1995Chris Tuffley1996Jon Cherrie and Kahn Mason1997Brian Bull1998James McGowan1999Clare McLennan Nigel Sinclair2000Hannah Sutherland2001Daniel Myall2002Philip Daniel2003Ronald Begg2005Maarten Jordens2006James Roscoe2007Timothy Candy2008Ashley Lightfoot2009Thomas Steinke2010Nicholas Brettell and James Hadfield2011Thomas Li2012Simon Todd2013Jamie de Jong, Andreas Kempe and Joshua Smith2014Carolyn Irons
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