Derman Christopherson

Sir Derman Guy Christopherson OBE FRS FREng (6 September 1915 – 7 November 2000) was a British engineering science academic.

He was born the son of a clergyman, Derman Christopherson (the vicar of Plumstead in southeast London), and Edith Frances Christopherson. Soon afterwards, the Christopherson family moved to Porlock in Devon, where his father was vicar of Clovelly. As a boy, Christopherson suffered from asthma. He was educated privately until, at age 14, he was sent to Sherborne School in Dorset.

He gained a scholarship at University College, Oxford, initially to read Mathematics. Later, in 1937, he achieved a first class degree in Engineering Science. The following year he went to Harvard University in the United States as a Henry Fellow, gaining an SM master's degree in 1938.

He returned to Oxford University as a research assistant to Sir Richard Southwell FRS, working on numerical methods for applied mechanics. He contributed to Southwell's relaxation method. Christopherson was the first to apply the method in the solution of field differential equations, which later became the most important application. He gained his DPhil in 1941.

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