astronomy

John Dalgleish Donaldson

John Dalgleish Donaldson is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand John Dalgleish Donaldson rather than just read about it. In short: John Dalgleish Donaldson (5 September 1941 – 11 April 2026) was a Scottish-Australian academic and father of Queen Mary of Denmark, the wife of King Frederik X of Denmark. Background John Dalgleish Donaldson was born on 5 September 1941 in Cockenzie and Port Seton, East Lothian, Scotland, the son of Captain Peter Donaldson and his wife, Mary Dalgleish.

Key takeaways

John Dalgleish Donaldson belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect John Dalgleish Donaldson to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of John Dalgleish Donaldson from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

John Dalgleish Donaldson (5 September 1941 – 11 April 2026) was a Scottish-Australian academic and father of Queen Mary of Denmark, the wife of King Frederik X of Denmark.

Background John Dalgleish Donaldson was born on 5 September 1941 in Cockenzie and Port Seton, East Lothian, Scotland, the son of Captain Peter Donaldson and his wife, Mary Dalgleish. Captain Donaldson had sailed regularly from Port Seton Harbour, then in 1962 it is recorded the vessel Shearwater navigating the Bass Strait Islands with a cargo of livestock under his command was lost off Ninth Island. He and his crew were saved and there are still remains of the ship on the island today. On 31 August 1963, Donaldson married his first wife, Henrietta Clark Horne (1942–1997), at Port Seton. They emigrated to Tasmania, Australia, in November of that year. Donaldson's parents, his elder brother and younger sister also emigrated to Tasmania. His father then joined a large maritime trading company as a captain. They had four children, including Mary Elizabeth Donaldson, who married King Frederik X (then Crown Prince Frederik) in 2004. In addition to British citizenship, Donaldson obtained Australian citizenship in 1975. Henrietta died on 20 November 1997, and Donaldson later married Susan Elizabeth Horwood (born 1940) on 5 September 2001. She is a novelist who writes under the names Susan Moody, Susannah James and Susan Madison. Donaldson died in Hobart on 11 April 2026, aged 84.

Education In 1963, Donaldson graduated from the University of Edinburgh with a BSc degree with honours in Mathematics and Physics. After Edinburgh, Donaldson moved to Australia to work under the direction of mathematician Professor David Elliott at the University of Tasmania, taking a PhD in Mathematics in 1967.

Career After receiving his doctorate in 1967, Donaldson remained at the University of Tasmania as a lecturer in applied mathematics, becoming Dean of UTAS Faculty of Science until retiring in 2003. He specialised in numerical analysis and has an Erdős number of 3. With the Earl of Dunmore, Donaldson served on the Scottish Australian Heritage Council. Professor of Applied Mathematics at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Donaldson was previously a Visiting Professor at several universities in Houston, Montreal, then Oxford, from 2004 at Aarhus University and from 2006 also at the University of Copenhagen. A keen rugby player and a member of the University Associates Rugby Union Club, Donaldson is renowned as having captained the first Tasmanian State Rugby Team to play against a touring New Zealand All Blacks team, at Queenborough Oval, Hobart, on 25 May 1968, which the All Blacks won 74–0.

Honours, title and coat of arms PhD (UTAS), doctorate received by Dr J. D. Donaldson, 1968 Grand Cross of the Order of the Dannebrog, 2004 Upon the marriage of his daughter to the then Crown Prince Frederik in 2004, Donaldson was appointed to the Order of the Dannebrog. In accordance with the statutes of the Danish Royal Orders, both he and his daughter were granted arms to display in the Chapel of the Royal Orders at Frederiksborg Castle.

Publications Chick, H.L.; Collis, K.F.; Donaldson, J.D.; Watson, J.M. (1995). Professional development in mathematics for teachers: Who, what, why and how. 15th Biennial Conference of the Australian Association of Mathematics Teachers. Darwin. pp. 65–71. S2CID 180618518. Donaldson, John D.; Jezewski, Donald J. (1977). "An element formulation for perturbed motion about the center of mass". Celestial Mechanics and Dynamical Astronomy. 16 (3): 367–387. Bibcode:1977CeMec..16..367D. doi:10.1007/BF01232661. S2CID 123349501. Roberts, Michael S.; Donaldson, John D.; Rowland, Malcolm (1988). "Models of hepatic elimination: Comparison of stochastic models to describe residence time distributions and to predict the influence of drug distribution, enzyme heterogeneity, and systemic recycling on hepatic elimination". Journal of Pharmacokinetics and Pharmacodynamics. 16 (1): 41–83. doi:10.1007/BF01061862. PMID 3373419. S2CID 360960. Wotherspoon, S.J.; Donaldson, J.D. (1996). "Finite differences and internal tides-representing the boundary". Deep-Sea Research Part I. 43 (6): 949–958. Bibcode:1996DSRI...43..949W. doi:10.1016/0967-0637(96)00029-5. ISSN 0967-0637. Donaldson, John D.; Rahman, Qazi Ibadur (1972). "Inequalities for polynomials with a prescribed zero". Pacific Journal of Mathematics. 41 (2): 375–378. doi:10.2140/pjm.1972.41.375.

References

Sources Genealogisches Handbuch des Adels, Fürstliche Häuser, Reference: 2004 11 The Ancestry of Mary Elizabeth Donaldson 2006, Reitwiesner, William Addams, Reference: nr.2

External links John D. Donaldson @ Mathematics Genealogy Project

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with John Dalgleish Donaldson

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what John Dalgleish Donaldson claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to John Dalgleish Donaldson before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about John Dalgleish Donaldson ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of John Dalgleish Donaldson

In research: John Dalgleish Donaldson appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses John Dalgleish Donaldson in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: John Dalgleish Donaldson is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1941 births, 2026 deaths, Academic staff of KAIST, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for John Dalgleish Donaldson outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study John Dalgleish Donaldson in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what John Dalgleish Donaldson means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain John Dalgleish Donaldson out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is John Dalgleish Donaldson in simple terms?

John Dalgleish Donaldson (5 September 1941 – 11 April 2026) was a Scottish-Australian academic and father of Queen Mary of Denmark, the wife of King Frederik X of Denmark. Background John Dalgleish Donaldson was born on 5 September 1941 in Cockenzie and Port Seton, East Lothian, Scotland, the son o…

Why does John Dalgleish Donaldson matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study John Dalgleish Donaldson?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on John Dalgleish Donaldson.