Mathematics courses have been offered at the University of Tasmania since the first students were admitted in 1893. At that time there were no more than a dozen students enrolled but there were three staff members. The staff to student ratio has not been that good ever since! 

One of the three staff members was Alexander McAulay. He was promoted to Professor of Mathematics and Physics in 1896 and retired at the end of 1929. In 1926, Edwin Pitman was appointed as Professor of Mathematics. At that time separate Departments of Mathematics and Physics were established with Leicester McAuley, son of Alexander McAulay, being appointed as Professor of Physics. It is interesting to note that four men, Alexander McAulay, Edwin Pitman, David Elliott and Barry Gardner virtually span the entire period of Mathematics teaching from 1893 to 2014. It is also worthy of note that the University's appointment of the first woman academic was that of Edith Lowenstern to the Mathematics Department, in 1928.

The first Ph.D. degree earned in the Department was in 1964 by Michael Hasofer who was a Lecturer in the Department at that time. He went on to become Professor of Statistics at the University of New South Wales. Many graduates in Mathematics have gone on to take senior positions in academe. Of these, perhaps the most outstanding is Geoff Whittle. Geoff completed his Ph.D. in 1984 and stayed on in the Department as a Tutor and then a Research Fellow. When it became clear that a tenured position was not on the horizon, Geoff took a Lectureship at Victoria University in Wellington, New Zealand in 1992. He was promoted to Senior Lecturer in 1994, to Reader in 1997 and to a personal Chair in 2001. Over the years Geoff has solved many research problems in his chosen field but his outstanding achievement came in 2013 when, together with collaborators in Canada and the Netherlands, he solved the so called Rota conjecture in matroid theory which had remained unproven since 1970. Pure Mathematicians thrive on solving famous conjectures! In highlighting Geoff Whittle's achievements we must not forget Don Row who introduced not only Geoff, but also people like James Oxley and Dirk Vertigan, both now Professors at the University of Louisiana, to matroid theory.

Of the graduates from the Mathematics Department who have pursued non-academic careers, perhaps the most outstanding is Ashton Calvert. He went to Oxford University on a Rhodes Scholarship in 1966 and there completed a D.Phil. in Pure Mathematics. On returning to Australia, he joined the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and finished up as its Secretary. Federal Public Servants do not come much more senior than that! In 2000, the University awarded him an honorary D.Sc.

In 1964 John Donaldson came to the Mathematics Department and enrolled for a Ph.D., which he received in 1968. He then joined the academic staff of the Mathematics Department where he remained until his retirement in 2003. John, and his wife Etta Donaldson, who over the years had been Secretary to both the Vice-Chancellor and the Registrar, are the parents of Mary Donaldson who is also a graduate of this University but is better known as Crown Princess Mary of Denmark.

A unique contribution to Mathematics was made by David Paget. He came to the Department as a Ph.D. student in 1967 and, after receiving his degree, became a member of staff. Inspired by his own experiences when at school, he started Friday evening sessions at the University for mathematically talented high school students. This ultimately led him to becoming the Team Leader of the Australian Mathematical Olympiad team to five International Mathematical Olympiads. Following his untimely death at age 54 in 1997, a street in Canberra has been named in his honour.

Over the years the Mathematics Department has had its ups and downs. From 1957 until 1993, the Department had two Professors. In 1976, Rudi Lidl was appointed as Professor of Pure Mathematics at the age of 27, surely one of the youngest Professorial appointments ever in the University. In 1993, he became Deputy Vice-Chancellor and was lost to Mathematics. After David Elliott's retirement at the end of 1994, the Department had no Professorial appointment until 2000 when Larry Forbes was appointed as Professor of Mathematics. 

With diminishing numbers of students in both Mathematics and Physics, the clock was turned back in 2000 when the two Departments were merged to form a School of Mathematics and Physics. At their peaks, Mathematics had 13 academic staff and Physics had 19. Today, the School of Mathematics and Physics has 10 academic staff. From this, one might conclude that the subjects of Mathematics and Physics are not so popular with modern youth. Nevertheless, the School continues to have outstanding students, with two Rhodes Scholars in recent years and Ph.D. graduates in positions around the world. In which case, perhaps it is not surprising that the University of Tasmania can get into the top two per cent of the world's Universities with such a minimal School of Maths and Physics.

About the authors: Emeritus Professor David Elliott holds the following:- BSc Hons MSc (London), MSE (Princeton), PhD (Adel), FIMA, ChM, FAustMS. 

Emeritus Professor Rudolf Lidl, PhD (Vienna), was Professor of Pure Mathematics at the University of Tasmania from 1976 until 2007. He was Deputy Vice-Chancellor from 1993 until 2007.