Geologist Charles Lapworth taught English at Madras College, St Andrews. Although predominately self-taught in the field of geology, he made significant contributions to research regarding the Southern Uplands. He is mostly remembered for proposing…
The 'charming and outstanding' Sir D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson believed that all science and learning were one and the same, testified by his wide-ranging expertise as a scientist, naturalist, classicist, mathematician, scholar and philosopher. A year…
Scottish physicist, mathematician, astronomer, writer, historian of science and inventor of the kaleidoscope, David Brewster became a significant figure in Scottish higher education through becoming the principal of the University of St Andrews, and…
Founding father of the United States of America, Benjamin Franklin, was deeply interested in the world around him and excelled in numerous fields. He was many things in his lifetime: a printer, a postmaster, an ambassador, an author, a scientist, a…
Charles Darwin described Robert FitzRoy as a 'very extraordinary person', being 'everything that is delightful' and 'very scientific'. Vice-Admiral FitzRoy was an English officer of the Royal Navy and a scientist. He is most celebrated as the captain…
James David Forbes, principal at the University of St Andrews from 1859 to his death in 1868, studied the contradictory topics of heat and glaciers. Despite familial pressure to become a lawyer, Forbes (with David Brewster's encouragement) pursued a…
The Scottish mathematician, astronomer, and first Regius Professor of Mathematics at the University of St Andrews, James Gregory, was one of the three inventors of calculus and the first to write a textbook concerning it (hence why calculus was…
Scottish Mathematician John Mair (sometimes Maoir) worked in both Paris and St Andrews teaching logic and theology. He studied at Cambridge (rare for a Scot at this time), where he spent around a year before furthering his studies in France. He…
