Joseph Proudman (30 December 1888 – 26 June 1975), CBE, FRS was a distinguished British mathematician and oceanographer of international repute.
With this and the award of an entrance exhibition, he had a second brilliant undergraduate career, studying pure and applied mathematics at Trinity College, Cambridge where he became a Wrangler with distinction graduating in 1912.
In 1916 Horace Lamb asked Proudman to assist him in preparing a report for the British Association on the state of research on ocean tides.
After several changes of name and status the institute (having amalgamated with the Liverpool Observatory in 1929) is now the Proudman Oceanographic Laboratory (see external links below).
In addition to his work in developing the departments of applied mathematics and oceanography, Proudman took a full part in University administration and acted as Pro-Vice-Chancellor during the war years 1940–46.
The Adams prize of the University of Cambridge was awarded to Proudman in 1923 for an essay on tides, which proved to be a remarkable seed-bed of ideas from which there developed a series of papers, many of them jointly with Doodson, of theoretical and practical importance.
He was a fellow of the Royal Society (elected 1925) which awarded him the Hughes Medal in 1957 and he served on many scientific and government committees.