This entry contributed by Michel Barran

British-American mathematician who was born in Manchester, England and educated at Cambridge, Göttingen, and Paris. He came to the United States in 1910 and received his Ph.D. at Johns Hopkins University in 1913. He subsequently became professor in the Division of Mathematics, Theoretical Physics, and Aeronautics at the California Institute of Technology in 1917.

Bateman made numerous contributions to applied mathematics, including in the fields of aerodynamic, fluid mechanics, electromagnetic theory, thermodynamics, and geophysics. During his later years, he planned an extensive compilation of special functions, i.e., solutions of wide classes of mathematically and physically relevant functional equations. Upon his death, Bateman's notes, organized into a large number of shoe boxes, amounted to a veritable mountain of paper. In 1948, arrangements were made between the California Institute of Technology and the Office of Naval Research to employ four mathematical analysts of international reputation to complete Bateman's work. A. Erdélyi, W. Magnus, F. Oberhettinger, and F. Tricomi collaborated for several years on the so-called "Bateman Manuscript Project," culminating in the magnificent three-volume work on special functions entitled Higher Transcendental Functions.

Erdélyi