Sources
open directory project
Help build the largest human-edited directory on the web.
Submit a site - Become an editor
Wikipedia. Licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
Are you an expert in this subject? Join the discussion and share your knowledge at Wikipedia.org.
Plumian Professor of Astronomy and Experimental Philosophy
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Redirected from Plumian Professor of Astronomy)
The Plumian chair of Astronomy and Experimental Philosophy is one of the two major Professorships in Astronomy at Cambridge University, alongside the Lowndean Professorship. The chair is currently held at the Institute of Astronomy in the University. The Plumian chair was founded in 1704 by Thomas Plume, a member of Christ's and Archdeacon of Rochester, to "erect an Observatory and to maintain a studious and learned Professor of Astronomy and Experimental Philosophy, and to buy him and his successors utensils and instruments quadrants telescopes etc."
The first Professorship was awarded to Roger Cotes in 1707, a former student of Isaac Newton, and the stipend was increased in 1768 by Dr Robert Smith, the second Plumian Professor.
- Roger Cotes (1707-1716)
- Robert Smith (1716-1760)
- Anthony Shepherd (1760-1796)
- Samuel Vince (1796-1821)
- Robert Woodhouse (1822-1828)
- George Airy (1828-1836)
- James Challis (1836-1883)
- George Darwin (1883-1912)
- Arthur Eddington (1913-1944)
- Harold Jeffreys (1946-1958)
- Fred Hoyle (1958-1972)
- Martin Rees (1973-1991)
- Richard Ellis (1993-2000)
- Jeremiah Ostriker (2001-2003)
- Robert Kennicutt (2005-)