today's Featured List/June 1, 2020
The position of Savilian Professor of Geometry was established at the University of Oxford in 1619.
It was founded (at the same time as the Savilian Professorship of Astronomy) by Henry Savile (pictured), a mathematician and classical scholar who was Warden of Merton College, Oxford, and Provost of Eton College, reacting to what has been described by one 20th-century mathematician as "the wretched state of mathematical studies in England" at that time. He appointed Henry Briggs as the first professor. There have been 20 professors; Frances Kirwan, the current and first female holder of the chair, was appointed in 2017. The post has been held by a number of distinguished mathematicians. Briggs helped to develop the common logarithm, described as "one of the most useful systems for mathematics". The third professor, John Wallis, introduced the use of ∞ for infinity, and was regarded as "one of the leading mathematicians of his time". (Full list...)
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