From Newton to Hawking: A History of Cambridge University's Lucasian Professors of Mathematics

by Edited by Kevin C. Knox , Richard Noakes , Foreword by Stephen W. Hawking

• ISBN13: 9780521663106
• ISBN10: 0521663105
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2003-12-08
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

Cambridge University's Lucasian Professorship of Mathematics is one of the most celebrated academic positions in the world. Since its foundation in 1663, the chair has been held by seventeen men who represent some of the best and most influential minds in science and technology. Principally a social history of mathematics and physics, the story of these great natural philosophers and mathematical physicists is told here by some of the finest historians of science. The journey begins with the search for a benefactor able to establish a 'mathematicus professor honorarius', and travels through the life and work of the professors, exploring aspects from the heroic to the absurd. Covering both the great similarities and the extreme differences in mathematical physics over the last four centuries, this informative work offers interesting perspectives on world-famous scientists including Isaac Newton, Charles Babbage, G. G. Stokes, Paul Dirac and Stephen Hawking.

Table of Contents

Timeline of Lucasian Professors

Foreword Stephen Hawking

Introduction: 'Mind Almost Divine' K. C. Knox and R. Noakes

1. Isaac Barrow and the foundation of the Lucasian Professorship M. Feingold

2. 'Very Accomplished Mathematician, Philosopher, Chemist' - Newton as Lucasian Professor R. Iliffe

3. Making Newton easy: William Whiston in Cambridge and London S. Snobelen and L. Stewart

4. Sensible Newtonians: Nicholas Saunderson &

John Colson J. Gascoigne

5. The negative side of nothing: Edward Waring, Isaac Milner and Newtonian values K. C. Knox

6. Paper and brass: The Lucasian Professorship 1820-1839 S. Schaffer

7. Arbiters of Victorian science: George Gabriel Stokes and Joshua King D. B. Wilson

8. 'That Universal Aetherial Plenum': Joseph Larmor's Natural History of Physics A. Warwick

9. Paul Dirac: the purest soul in an atomic age H. Kragh

10. Is the end in sight for the Lucasian Chair? Stephen Hawking as Millennium Professor H. Mialet

Appendix. The Statutes of the Lucasian Professorship: a translation I. Stewart.