Elmer Gethin Rees, 1941–2019

Abstract Elmer Rees was an undergraduate in Cambridge and a PhD student at Warwick. After Warwick, he held short‐term positions in Hull, IAS Princeton, and Swansea. Then, in 1971, he was appointed to a fellowship in St Catherine's College, Oxford. He left Oxford in 1979 for a professorship in Edinburgh, where he stayed until 2005. His research interests were in geometry and topology, and his publications cover the full range of this broad field. There are two particularly notable collaborations in his work: the first with Emery Thomas from Berkeley, and the second with Victor Buchstaber from Moscow. He was very active in all aspects of mathematical life, research, teaching, and service. One of Elmer's lasting contributions to the mathematical community was his role in establishing the International Centre for Mathematical Sciences in Edinburgh in 1990. He was the Founding Director of the Heilbronn Institute of Mathematical Research from 2005 until 2009. In 2009 Elmer was awarded a CBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours List.