LEVY, HYMAN

LEVY, HYMAN (1889–1975), British mathematician. Levy was born in Edinburgh and was professor of mathematics at the Imperial College of Science, London, from 1923 to 1955, and was dean of the Royal College of Science (1948–54). During World War I he worked on aerodynamics at the National Physical Laboratory. Always deeply interested in social affairs, Levy was a pioneer in explaining and interpreting the social impact of science. He was chairman of the Labour Party's science advisory committee from 1924 to 1930. He became a leading member of the British Communist Party, particularly active among scientists. After a visit to the Soviet Union in 1957 he published a pamphlet "Jews and the National Question" (1958), which criticized the Soviet attitude to the Jews and Jewish culture in the U.S.S.R., whereupon he was expelled from the Communist Party. (Maurice Goldsmith)