Lucasian Chair.org

• 17th Century
• 18th Century
• 19th Century
• 20th Century
• 21st Century

• Bibliography

• Isaac Barrow
• Sir Isaac Newton
• William Whiston
• Nicolas Saunderson
• John Colson
• Edward Waring
• Isaac Milner
• Robert Woodhouse
• Thomas Turton
• Sir George Biddell Airy
• Charles Babbage
• Joshua King
• Sir George Gabriel Stokes
• Sir Joseph Larmor
• P. A. M. Dirac
• Sir M. James Lighthill
• Stephen Hawking
• Michael B. Green

The Lucasian Chair of Mathematics
at Cambridge University

An important Professorship of Mathematick was deeded in December 1663 at Cambridge University, England, as a result of a gift from Henry Lucas, M.P. for the university. The Lucasian Professorship of Mathematics is the most famous academic chair in the world. This is due in no small part to the former holder of the chair, Professor Stephen Hawking, well known theoretical physicist, and Sir Isaac Newton, second holder of the chair. What is not so commonly known is that the chair has been held by others who represent the best and most influential minds in science and technology the world has known, as well as few not so important men. As a group, the eightteen men who have held the chair have made a unique contribution to the world. The Era of Modern Science has its beginnings here. The three hundred forty years that have passed since its founding have seen a dramatic evolution of science.

• Original dissertation preface
• Introduction.
• Summary.

• Brief History of the Lucasian Chair.
• Overcoming Greatness: The Decline and Recovery of British Mathematics in the Post-Newton Era.
• Early Modern English and the Scientific Revolution.
• Interview with Sir M. James Lighthill, December 1992. (written with Jean Flanagan)