Jillian Beardwood obituary

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2020/feb/06/jillian-beardwood-obituary

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My aunt, Jillian Beardwood, who has died aged 84, was a mathematician who co-authored the Beardwood-Halton-Hammersley theorem in 1959 to prove the shortest possible path through many points. This provides an answer to the famous “travelling salesman problem”, which, given a list of cities and the distances between each pair of cities, seeks to find the shortest possible route that visits each one and returns to the starting point.

Jill went on from this fascination with getting people quickly from one place to another to a long career as a transport economist, including with the Greater London council (GLC).

She was born in Norwich, Norfolk, to Frederick, a policeman, and his wife, Ethel (nee Pike), known as Peggy. After attending Blyth grammar school for girls she studied mathematics at St Hugh’s College, Oxford, graduating with a first in 1956.

She then took on a research studentship at the newly formed UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA), where she was one of four postgraduate students selected to study with John Hammersley, in the process gaining privileged access to the Ferranti Mercury computers at both Oxford and Harwell, as well as to the Illiac II computer at the University of Illinois. It was during this time that she helped to draw up the Beardwood-Halton-Hammersley theorem.

Jill went on to work for the UKAEA as a senior scientific officer (1960-68), while studying during that period for her doctorate, which she completed in 1968. She then moved into transport modelling, working first for the government-run Road Research Laboratory as a senior scientific officer (1968-73) and then joining the GLC, spending most of her 14 years there as head of the transport studies group.

She and her team studied plans for important decisions such as building the M25 and introducing congestion pricing. One of her most quoted studies found that building more roads leads to more cars. Her team’s research predicted that the M25 would quickly exceed maximum capacity, which it did.

After the GLC was dissolved, Jill worked for the transport planning consultancy MEAP (part of the WSP group) while also holding posts as a senior research fellow at the London School of Economics and as a lecturer at the Polytechnic of Central London (now the University of Westminster).

After retiring she immersed herself in the community based around All Saints’ church in Bishop’s Stortford, Hertfordshire, where she was warden, treasurer and Synod rep. She served on the board of governors of All Saints’ school and volunteered at Herts & Essex hospital as well as at the local food bank. Her faith was deeply held.

She is survived by her brother, Michael, her nephew, Mark, and by me.