Lucasian Professor of Mathematics

History

Henry Lucas, in his will, bequeathed his library of 4,000 volumes to the university and left instructions for the purchase of land whose yielding should provide £100 a year for the founding of a professorship.

It is the third oldest chair of mathematics in Great Britain, after the Gresham Professor of Geometry at Gresham College and the Savilian Professor of Geometry at the University of Oxford.

In the 1800s and following decades, the Lucasian professors "played important roles in making Britain the preeminent scientific state and in changing the university from a ‘gentleman’s club’ to a research institution."

Babbage applied for the vacancy in 1826, after Turton, but Airy was appointed. William Whewell (who considered applying, but preferred both Herschel and Babbage to himself) remarked that he would be the best professor, but that the heads of the colleges would not see that. Nonetheless, Babbage was appointed when the chair became free again two years later.

The 19th and current Lucasian Professor is Michael Cates, starting from 1 July 2015.{{cite web |access-date=19 March 2015

Recently, the University of Cambridge requires holders of the chair to retire from the post at the age of 67, as was the case for Stephen Hawking.{{cite news |access-date=1 October 2009

List of Lucasian professors

Cultural references

In the final episode of the science-fiction television series Star Trek: The Next Generation, one of the main characters, the android Data, holds the Lucasian Chair in the late 24th century, albeit in an alternate reality.{{Cite web | access-date = 2016-02-25 | access-date = 2016-02-25 | access-date = 2016-02-25

References

References

1. (2003). "From Newton to Hawking: A History of Cambridge University's Lucasian Professors of Mathematics". [[Cambridge University Press]].
2. (2009-10-21). "Michael Green to become Lucasian Professor of Mathematics". The Daily Telegraph.
3. Bruen, Robert. (May 1995). "A Brief History of The Lucasian Professorship of Mathematics at Cambridge University". LucasianChair.org.
4. (1932). "The Lucasian Professors at Cambridge". Nature.
5. (2003). "From Newton to Hawking: A History of Cambridge University's Lucasian Professors of Mathematics". [[Cambridge University Press]].
6. Isaac Todhunter. (1876). "William Whewell, D. D., Master of Trinity College, Cambridge: An Account of His Writings: with Selections from His Literary and Scientific Correspondence". MacMillan.