Lucasian Professor of Mathematics
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| Lucasian Professor of Mathematics | |
|---|---|
| Name | Lucasian Professorship of Mathematics |
| Established | 1663 |
| University | University of Cambridge |
| Department | Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics / Faculty of Mathematics, University of Cambridge |
| First | Isaac Barrow |
| Notable | Isaac Newton, Paul Dirac, Stephen Hawking, Geoffrey Taylor, Michael Green |
Lucasian Professor of Mathematics is a senior academic chair at the University of Cambridge established in 1663 with ties to Trinity College and a long lineage of scholars influential in Royal Society, Royal Navy, British Empire, European Enlightenment, Scientific Revolution, and modern theoretical research. The chair has been held by mathematicians and physicists whose work intersected with figures and institutions such as Isaac Newton, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, Joseph Fourier, James Clerk Maxwell, Albert Einstein, Niels Bohr, Erwin Schrödinger, Paul Dirac, Stephen Hawking, and organizations including Trinity College, Cambridge, King's College London, Imperial College London, University of Oxford, and Princeton University.
History
The foundation of the chair in the 17th century occurred during the reign of Charles II of England and the period of the Restoration (England), overlapping with the rise of the Royal Society and contemporaries like Robert Boyle, Christopher Wren, Robert Hooke, Edmond Halley, John Wallis, and Thomas Hobbes. Early holders such as Isaac Barrow and Isaac Newton contributed to analytic geometry and classical mechanics alongside developments by René Descartes, Pierre de Fermat, Blaise Pascal, Gottfried Leibniz, and Bernoulli family. In the 18th and 19th centuries the chair linked to continental advances by Leonhard Euler, Joseph-Louis Lagrange, Adrien-Marie Legendre, Carl Friedrich Gauss, George Stokes, Lord Kelvin, William Rowan Hamilton, and James Clerk Maxwell. The 20th century saw holders whose research connected to special relativity, general relativity, quantum mechanics, and string theory, intersecting with figures and centers such as Albert Einstein, Niels Bohr, Max Planck, Erwin Schrödinger, Paul Dirac, Wolfgang Pauli, John von Neumann, Alan Turing, Cavendish Laboratory, Laboratoire de Physique Théorique, Institute for Advanced Study, and CERN.
Responsibilities and duties
The professorship traditionally entails lecturing and supervising within Trinity College, Cambridge and university faculties linked to Mathematical Tripos examinations, with public orations and publications engaging communities associated with Royal Society, British Academy, Institute of Physics, Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics, and international societies such as American Mathematical Society and European Mathematical Society. Duties have included research in areas overlapping with classical mechanics, electromagnetism, hydrodynamics, thermodynamics, statistical mechanics, relativity, quantum field theory, string theory, algebraic geometry, and collaborations with institutions like Cambridge University Press, Courtauld Institute, Keble College, St John's College, Cambridge, Peterhouse, Cambridge, and funding agencies such as Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council and European Research Council.
Notable holders
Notable individuals who have held the chair include early luminaries and modern theorists whose work connected to Isaac Newton, Joseph-Louis Lagrange, Augustin-Louis Cauchy, George Gabriel Stokes, G. H. Hardy, James Jeans, E. T. Whittaker, Sir Arthur Eddington, Sir Geoffrey Taylor, Paul Dirac, Freeman Dyson, Michael Green, Stephen Hawking, Sir Michael Atiyah and others who engaged with Cambridge Philosophical Society, Royal Institution, Birkbeck, University of London, Duke University, Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Princeton University, Yale University, University of Chicago, Columbia University, and California Institute of Technology.
Selection and tenure
Appointments historically were made by college and university bodies influenced by patrons and benefactors from the period of Charles II of England through Victorian patrons connected with institutions such as Trinity College, Cambridge and adjudicated by committees involving Fellows, external examiners, and sometimes governmental or royal assent. Candidates often possessed reputations built via publications in venues like Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, Proceedings of the Royal Society A, Proceedings of the London Mathematical Society, and monographs published by Cambridge University Press, Oxford University Press, Springer, Elsevier, Institute of Physics Publishing and awards such as the Fields Medal, Nobel Prize in Physics, Wolf Prize in Physics, Abel Prize, Copley Medal, Royal Medal and fellowships in Royal Society, British Academy, Academia Europaea. Tenure has varied from life appointments to term-limited statutory chairs, reflecting wider reforms in higher education and recruitment practices paralleling changes at University of Oxford, University of Edinburgh, Imperial College London, University of Paris (Sorbonne), and Humboldt University of Berlin.
Endowment and funding
The endowment originates from benefactions established in the 17th century, maintained through college investments, donations, and support from bodies such as Trinity College, Cambridge, University of Cambridge, Cambridge Endowment for Research, and historical patrons connected to British Parliament and royal grants. Financial backing intersects with grants from public and private funders like UK Research and Innovation, Royal Society, Wellcome Trust, Leverhulme Trust, Gates Foundation, Simons Foundation, corporate partnerships with entities in pharmaceutical industry, aerospace industry, and philanthropic gifts from alumni associated with Trinity Hall, St Catharine's College, Cambridge, St John's College, Cambridge, and international benefactors.
Impact on mathematics and science
Holders of the chair have shaped trajectories in mathematical physics, influencing breakthroughs in calculus, classical mechanics, electrodynamics, fluid dynamics, statistical mechanics, quantum mechanics, quantum field theory, cosmology, black hole thermodynamics, and foundational mathematics such as group theory, topology, differential geometry, algebraic topology, number theory, complex analysis, and partial differential equations. Their work fed into applied and institutional developments at Cavendish Laboratory, Isaac Newton Institute for Mathematical Sciences, Cambridge Physics Department, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, European Space Agency, and influenced technological and theoretical programs in satellite navigation, nuclear energy, semiconductor industry, computational science, machine learning, and cross-disciplinary projects with medical research institutions and industrial laboratories. The scholarly lineage connects to broader intellectual movements including the Scientific Revolution, Enlightenment, Industrial Revolution, 20th-century physics revolution, and contemporary collaborations across international research networks.