Sheila Oates Williams (1939-2024)

(From Joe Grotowski 16th August 2024)
Sheila Williams, a former staff member in mathematics, passed away in hospital on Monday.

Sheila Oates Williams was born in 1939 in the UK and graduated with a DPhil from Oxford in 1963. She moved to Australia in 1966 to take up a position at the University of Newcastle, and joined the mathematics department at UQ in February 1967 as a Senior Lecturer. She was promoted to Reader, and retired from UQ in 1997.

Sheila was particularly known for the Oates-Powell theorem in group theory. She was also a long-term contributor to maths competition problem setting, including Queensland Association of Mathematics Teachers competitions and Australian Mathematics Trust competitions, her sustained contributions to the latter recognised by the 2002 B.H. Neumann award of the AMT.

She was also a competitor on Mastermind on multiple occasions, including reaching the semi-finals one season.

Some more details about Sheila's academic life, in particular her contributions to maths competitions, can be found on her BH Neumann Award page.

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