Lucasian professor

The Lucasian professor is the holder of a mathematical professorship at Cambridge University. The post was founded in 1663 by Henry Lucas[?], who was Cambridge University's representative to Parliament in 1639-1640. Lucas, in his will, bequeathed his library of 4,000 volumes to the University and left instruction for the purchase of land whose yielding would provide £100 a year for the founding of a professorship. In 1860, the fund had risen to only £155.

List of Lucasian Professors

• 1664 Isaac Barrow
• 1669 Sir Isaac Newton
• 1702 William Whiston
• 1711 Nicolas Saunderson
• 1739 John Colson[?]
• 1760 Edward Waring
• 1798 Isaac Milner[?]
• 1820 Robert Woodhouse[?]
• 1822 Thomas Turton[?]
• 1826 Sir George Airy
• 1828 Charles Babbage
• 1839 Joshua King[?]
• 1849 Sir George Stokes
• 1903 Sir Joseph Larmor[?]
• 1932 Paul Dirac
• 1969 Sir M. James Lighthill[?]
• 1980 Stephen Hawking

External link:

• A Brief History of The Lucasian Professorship of Mathematics at Cambridge University (http://coldrain.net/lucas/brief)