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Title Oxford's Savilian Professors of Geometry : the first 400 years / edited by Robin Wilson
Published Oxford ; New York, NY : Oxford University Press, [2022]
©2022

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Description 1 online resource (vi, 269 pages) : illustrations (black and white)
Contents Sir Henry Savile and the early professors / William Poole -- John Wallis / Philip Beeley and Benjamin Wardhaugh -- A century of astronomers: from Halley to Rigaud / Allan Chapman and Christopher Hollings -- Baden Powell and Henry Smith / Keith Hannabuss -- James Joseph Sylvester / Karen Hunger Parshall -- G. H. Hardy and E. C. Titchmarsh / Robin Wilson -- From Michael Atiyah to the 21st century / Frances Kirwan -- Interview with Nigel Hitchin / Mark McCartney
Summary "The Savilian professorships in geometry and astronomy at Oxford University were founded in 1619 by Sir Henry Savile, distinguished scholar and Warden of Merton College. The Geometry chair, in particular, is the earliest University-based mathematics professorship in England, predating the first Cambridge equivalent by about sixty years. To celebrate the 400th anniversary of the founding of the Geometry chair, a meeting was held at the Bodleian Library in Oxford, and the talks presented at this meeting have formed the basis for this fully edited and lavishly illustrated book, which outlines the first 400 years of Oxford's Savilian professors of Geometry. Starting with Henry Briggs (co-inventor of logarithms), this volume proceeds via such figures as John Wallis (a founder member of the Royal Society) and Edmond Halley (of comet fame), via the 19th-century figures of Stephen Rigaud, Baden Powell, Henry Smith, and James Joseph Sylvester, to the 20th century (including G. H. Hardy and Sir Michael Atiyah) and the present day (Dame Frances Kirwan). This volume assumes no mathematical background, and should therefore appeal to the general reader with an interest in mathematics and the sciences, as well as to readers with a particular interest in the history of mathematics or in the development of Oxford and its University. To all of these audiences it offers portraits of mathematicians at work and an accessible exposition of historical mathematics in the context of its times"--Publisher's description
Notes Also issued in print: 2022
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index
Audience Specialized
Notes Online resource; title from home page (viewed on December 9, 2022)
Subject University of Oxford -- Officials and employees
SUBJECT University of Oxford fast
Subject Mathematicians -- England -- Oxford
College teachers -- England -- Oxford
Mathematics -- England -- Oxford -- History
Geometry -- England -- Oxford -- History
Geometry
College teachers
Employees
Mathematicians
Mathematics
England -- Oxford
Genre/Form Electronic books
History
Form Electronic book
Author Wilson, Robin J., editor.
ISBN 9780191905506
019190550X
9780192639936
0192639935