James Thomas (J. Thomas "Tom") Beale (born 1947) is an American mathematician, specializing in fluid dynamics, partial differential equations, and numerical analysis.[1]
J. Thomas Beale grew up in Savannah, Georgia.[2] In 1967 he graduated from California Institute of Technology (Caltech) with a B.S. in mathematics.[3] In 1973 he received his PhD in mathematics from Stanford University. His PhD thesis Purely imaginary scattering frequencies for exterior domains.[4] was written under the supervision of Ralph S. Phillips. Soon after receiving his PhD Beale became a faculty member at Tulane University. In 1983 he resigned from Tulane University and became a professor at Duke University, where he retired as professor emeritus in 2016.[5]
In 1994 Beale was an invited speaker with talk Analytical and numerical aspects of fluid interfaces at the International Congress of Mathematicians in Zurich.[6]
From June 28 to 30, 2010, the mathematics department of Duke University held a conference in his honor.[1]