Plumian Professor of Astronomy and Experimental Philosophy

The Chair Plumian Professor of Astronomy and Experimental Philosophy at Cambridge University in 1704 donated by Thomas Plume ( 1630-1704, member of Christ's College, Cambridge, and Archdeacon of Rochester ), who also founded the Plume Library at Maldon, Essex. The chair was one of two major astronomy departments in Cambridge, the other was the Lowndean professorship, which was, however, later occupied by pure mathematicians.

Chair were or are:

  • Roger Cotes (1682-1716), English mathematician
  • Robert Smith
  • Anthony Shepherd
  • Samuel Vince
  • Robert Woodhouse (1773-1827)
  • George Biddell Airy (1801-1892)
  • James Challis (1803-1882), English astronomer
  • George Howard Darwin (1845-1912), British astronomer and mathematician
  • Arthur Stanley Eddington (1882-1944)
  • Harold Jeffreys (1891-1989)
  • Fred Hoyle (1915-2001)
  • Martin Rees ( born 1942 ), British astronomer
  • Richard Ellis ( b. 1950 )
  • Jeremiah P. Ostriker ( b. 1937 ), American astrophysicist
  • Robert Kennicutt ( born 1951 ), American astronomer
University of Cambridge Maldon (Essex) Richard Ellis (astronomer)
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