Lucasian Professor

The incumbent of the Lucasian Chair of Mathematics, 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 Member of Parliament from 1639–1640, and was officially established by King Charles II on January 18, 1664. 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. One of the requirements in Lucas' will was that the holder of the professorship should not be active in the church. Isaac Newton would later appeal to King Charles II that this requirement excused him from taking holy orders, which was compulsory for all Fellows of the University at that time, but which would have been incompatible with his beliefs that were contrary to those of the Anglican Church. The King supported Newton and excused all holders of the professorship, in perpetuity, from the requirement to take holy orders.

The current Lucasian Professor of Mathematics is renowned theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking. He was appointed in 1980.

List of Lucasian Professors

Lucasian Professor in fiction

In "All Good Things...", the last episode of the television series The Next Generation, the android Data holds the Lucasian Chair. This episode is set around the year 2395, in a hypothetical future created by the entity Q.

References

Lucasian Chair of Mathematics website
Kevin Knox and Richard Noakes, From Newton to Hawking: A History of Cambridge University's Lucasian Professors of Mathematics ISBN 0521663105

Cambridge Professorships | 1663 establishments

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List of Lucasian Professors

Lucasian Professor in fiction

See also

References