Savilian Professor of Geometry

Columns: Name | Years | Education | College as Professor | Notes
Abraham Robertson | 1797-1810 | Christ Church | Christ Church | Robertson started studying at Oxford aged 24 , having previously unsuccessfully run an evening school in Oxford for mechanics . He was supported by John Smith , and deputised for him in 1784 as Smith was working as a doctor in Cheltenham . He was well-regarded as a lecturer , noted for his clarity and the assistance he gave in encouraging students . He was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1795 to mark his work on conic sections ( the subject of his main work , Sectionum conicarum libri septem , in 1792 ) and his literary attainments and diligence in the pursuit of science . He also oversaw publication of an edition of the works of Archimedes . He succeeded Smith in 1797 , and became Savilian professor of astronomy in 1810 | Stephen Rigaud | 1810-1827 | Exeter College | - | Rigaud , whose father was the observer at Kew Observatory , made his first recorded observations in astronomy when at Exeter College , and was elected to a fellowship of the college when still an undergraduate . From about 1805 , he substituted for Thomas Hornsby , Savilian Professor of Astronomy and reader in experimental philosophy , because of Hornsby 's illness . When Robertson succeeded Hornsby in 1810 , Rigaud was appointed to the geometry chair ; he succeeded his father at Kew in 1814 , becoming joint observer with his grandfather . He succeeded Robertson in the astronomy and experimental philosophy positions in 1827 . His wife died in the same year , and Rigaud devoted himself to his children and his work ; he has been described as the foremost historian of astronomy and mathematics in his generation , and as renowned for his personal and scholarly integrity | Baden Powell | 1827-1860 | Oriel College | - | Powell carried out experiments in the areas of heat and light when he was a parish priest in Kent and London , although he found it difficult to keep abreast with mathematical advances in physics and some of the papers he offered to the Royal Society in the 1830s had considerable mistakes . He resigned his parish position when appointed to the chair , and was an active member of scientific organisations and commissions , with many publications to his credit . He was also noted for his stance on theological issues , opposing the work of the Oxford movement ( a group within the Church of England , sometimes referred to as Tractarians , who aimed to reform the church by reasserting its links with the early Catholic church ) , denying miracles and defending the theories of Charles Darwin . He advocated reform within the university , including improving the position of scientific studies , but opposition to his stance left him isolated at Oxford . He moved to London in 1854 , and mixed with leading individuals from science and literature . One of his sons was Robert Baden-Powell , the founder of the Scout Movement | Henry Smith | 1861-1883 | Balliol College | Balliol College and Corpus Christi College | Smith 's undergraduate studies at Oxford were interrupted by smallpox and malaria , but he studied in Paris during his convalescence and obtained first-class degrees in classics and also in mathematics in the same year . A fellow and lecturer in mathematics at Balliol , Smith also oversaw the college 's laboratory and taught chemistry ; he also arranged for lectures in mathematics to be given jointly with other colleges , a system that was adopted by other colleges and subjects and later grew into a university-based lecture system . From 1874 , he was also Keeper of the Oxford University Museum of Natural History . He was heavily involved with university committees , advocating the place of science and mathematics at Oxford , and with royal commissions on scientific instruction and on universities . His mathematical research in geometry , elliptic function theory and ( in particular ) number theory was highly regarded | James Sylvester | 1883-1894 | University of London and University of Cambridge ( St John 's College ) | New College | Sylvester started at the University of London aged 14 but left after allegedly assaulting another student ; he later studied at Cambridge and was Second Wrangler ( second in the university mathematics examinations ) but could not be awarded a degree or prizes , or be made a college fellow , because he was Jewish . He then became professor of natural philosophy at University College , London for three years before moving to the University of Virginia in 1841 , resigning after a dispute with university authorities in 1842 . Back in England , he worked as an actuary , carrying out mathematical research in elimination theory in his spare time , before appointment as professor of mathematics at Royal Military Academy , Woolwich , in 1855 . After compulsory retirement aged 55 , he spent a few years writing poetry and enjoying his club before returning to the United States in 1876 as professor of mathematics at the newly opened Johns Hopkins University , in Baltimore , Maryland . The move reinvigorated his research on invariant theory and matrix theory ; he published the results in the American Journal of Mathematics , which he founded . During this time , he was awarded the Copley Medal by the Royal Society . Homesick , he applied for the Savilian professorship ( Oxford having lifted the bar on Jewish academics ) and resigned from Johns Hopkins before receiving news of his appointment . He delayed his inaugural lecture until 1885 because he had difficulty finding a suitable topic . With his health failing , a deputy was appointed for him in 1892 ; he resigned in 1894 . The Royal Society inaugurated the Sylvester Medal in his honour in 1901 | William Esson | 1897-1916 | St John 's College | New College | Esson , a fellow of Merton College from 1860 , acted as deputy professor from 1894 until his appointment in 1897 , when he became a fellow of New College . His work with Augustus Harcourt on the rate of chemical change ( published in three papers in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society , spread over 30 years ) led to the award of fellowship of the Royal Society in 1869 ; one obituary notice said that the remainder of his publications were neither numerous nor of great importance . In his obituary , The Times called him a distinguished veteran in mathematical science , who had devoted himself to higher mathematics and its connexions with natural science with eminent success | G. H. Hardy | 1919-1931 | University of Cambridge ( Trinity College ) | New College | Hardy was awarded a prize fellowship at Trinity College in 1900 , and published the first of his research papers ( which eventually totalled over 350 ) in the same year . His collaboration with J. E. Littlewood began in 1911 , a partnership described as the most famous in the history of mathematics , with more than 100 joint papers on topics such as distribution of prime numbers , mathematical analysis , analytic number theory , and solving the Waring problem . He also worked with the Indian mathematical prodigy Srinivasa Ramanujan . He was a friend and colleague of the philosopher Bertrand Russell and was upset by Russell 's treatment by Cambridge for his pacifist views during the First World War . He was happier in Oxford , but returned to Cambridge in 1931 to take up the position of Sadleirian Professor of Pure Mathematics . His contribution to population genetics is known as the Hardy-Weinberg principle , described by a biographer of Hardy ( the Cambridge mathematician Béla Bollobás ) as one of the few exceptions to Hardy 's claim that nothing he had done , for good or ill , had made or was likely to make the least difference to the amenity of the world

Example questions:
What are the years of the Savilian Professor of Geometry who died on January 18 , 1963 ? | What are the years of the Savilian Professor of Geometry whose college as professor was founded in 1379 by William of Wykeham ? | Who is the Savilian Professor of Geometry whose education had an endowment of £291 million in 2018 , making it the fourth-wealthiest college ? | What is the college as Savilian Professor of Geometry of the professor whose fields of specialization are algebraic and symplectic geometry ?

Answers:
1931-1963 | 1995-1996 | Ioan James | New College