Synopses & Reviews
A history of Cambridge University's Lucasian Professorship of Mathematics.
Review
"The editors of this excellent book have culled contributions from 13 historians of science and put together a fascinating tale of the deeds, inventions, and ideas of the brilliant individuals who occupied the Lucasian Chair. Highly recommended." Choice"... solid and engaging ... It is a story to comfort any number of vice-chancellors, provosts, deans and department heads." Nature
About the Author
Kevin Knox is Historian at the Institute Archives, Caltech. He has held positions as Visiting Professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, and Ahmanson Postdoctoral Instructor in the Humanities at Caltech.Richard Noakes is a British Academy-Royal Society Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the History of Science, in the Department of History and Philosophy of Science, Cambridge University. He previously held a Leverhulme Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Universities of Leeds and Sheffield.
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 18201839; S. Schaffer
7. Arbiters of Victorian science: George Gabriel Stokes and Joshua King; D. B. Wilson
8. "That Universal Aetherial Plenum": Joseph Larmors 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