The incumbent of the Lucasian Chair of Mathematics, usually called the Lucasian Professor, is the holder of a mathematics

Mathematics

Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...

 professor

Professor

A professor is a scholarly teacher; the precise meaning of the term varies by country. Literally, professor derives from Latin as a "person who professes" being usually an expert in arts or sciences; a teacher of high rank...

ship at the University of Cambridge

University of Cambridge

The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...

, England. It is widely regarded as one of the world's most prestigious academic posts. The post was founded in 1663 by Henry Lucas, who was Cambridge University's Member of Parliament

Cambridge University (UK Parliament constituency)

Cambridge University was a university constituency electing two members to the British House of Commons, from 1603 to 1950.-Boundaries, Electorate and Election Systems:...

 from 1639–1640, and was officially established by King Charles II

Charles II of England

Charles II was monarch of the three kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland.Charles II's father, King Charles I, was executed at Whitehall on 30 January 1649, at the climax of the English Civil War...

 on January 18, 1664.

History of the Chair

Lucas, in his will

Will (law)

A will or testament is a legal declaration by which a person, the testator, names one or more persons to manage his/her estate and provides for the transfer of his/her property at death...

, bequeathed his library of 4,000 volumes to the university and left instruction for the purchase of land whose yielding should provide £100 a year for the founding of a professorship. One of the stipulations in Lucas' will was that the holder of the professorship should not be active in the church

Church of England

The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England and the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The church considers itself within the tradition of Western Christianity and dates its formal establishment principally to the mission to England by St...

. Isaac Newton

Isaac Newton

Sir Isaac Newton PRS was an English physicist, mathematician, astronomer, natural philosopher, alchemist, and theologian, who has been "considered by many to be the greatest and most influential scientist who ever lived."...

 later appealed to King Charles II

Charles II of England

Charles II was monarch of the three kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland.Charles II's father, King Charles I, was executed at Whitehall on 30 January 1649, at the climax of the English Civil War...

 that this requirement excused him from taking holy orders

Holy Orders

The term Holy Orders is used by many Christian churches to refer to ordination or to those individuals ordained for a special role or ministry....

, which was compulsory for most fellow

Fellow

A fellow in the broadest sense is someone who is an equal or a comrade. The term fellow is also used to describe a person, particularly by those in the upper social classes. It is most often used in an academic context: a fellow is often part of an elite group of learned people who are awarded...

s of the university at that time (some fellowships were exempt). The King supported Newton, and excused all holders of the professorship, in perpetuity, from the requirement to take holy orders.

The current holder of the post is the theoretical physicist Michael Green

Michael Green (physicist)

Michael Boris Green FRS is a British physicist and one of the pioneers of string theory. Currently a professor in the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics and a Fellow in Clare Hall at the University of Cambridge in England, he succeeded Stephen Hawking on 1 November 2009...

. He was appointed in October 2009, succeeding Stephen Hawking

Stephen Hawking

Stephen William Hawking, CH, CBE, FRS, FRSA is an English theoretical physicist and cosmologist, whose scientific books and public appearances have made him an academic celebrity...

 who retired in September 2009, in the year of his 67th birthday, as required by the University. Hawking now holds the position of Emeritus

Emeritus

Emeritus is a post-positive adjective that is used to designate a retired professor, bishop, or other professional or as a title. The female equivalent emerita is also sometimes used.-History:...

 Lucasian Professor of Mathematics.

List of Lucasian Professors

Year appointed	Name	Speciality
1664	Isaac Barrow Isaac Barrow Isaac Barrow was an English Christian theologian, and mathematician who is generally given credit for his early role in the development of infinitesimal calculus; in particular, for the discovery of the fundamental theorem of calculus. His work centered on the properties of the tangent; Barrow was...	Classics and mathematics
1669	Isaac Newton Isaac Newton Sir Isaac Newton PRS was an English physicist, mathematician, astronomer, natural philosopher, alchemist, and theologian, who has been "considered by many to be the greatest and most influential scientist who ever lived."...	Mathematics and physics
1702	William Whiston William Whiston William Whiston was an English theologian, historian, and mathematician. He is probably best known for his translation of the Antiquities of the Jews and other works by Josephus, his A New Theory of the Earth, and his Arianism...	Mathematics
1711	Nicholas Saunderson Nicholas Saunderson Nicholas Saunderson was an English scientist and mathematician. According to one leading historian of statistics, he may have been the earliest discoverer of Bayes theorem.-Biography:...	Mathematics
1739	John Colson John Colson Johnathan "John" Colson was an English clergyman and mathematician, Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge University.John Colson was educated at Lichfield School before becoming an undergraduate at Christ Church, Oxford, though he did not take a degree there...	Mathematics
1760	Edward Waring Edward Waring Edward Waring was an English mathematician who was born in Old Heath , Shropshire, England and died in Pontesbury, Shropshire, England. He entered Magdalene College, Cambridge as a sizar and became Senior wrangler in 1757. He was elected a Fellow of Magdalene and in 1760 Lucasian Professor of...	Mathematics
1798	Isaac Milner Isaac Milner Isaac Milner FRS was a mathematician, an inventor, the President of Queens' College, Cambridge and Lucasian Professor of Mathematics....	Mathematics and chemistry
1820	Robert Woodhouse Robert Woodhouse Robert Woodhouse was an English mathematician.-Biography:He was born at Norwich, the son of Robert Woodhouse, linen draper, and educated at Caius College, Cambridge, of which society he was subsequently a fellow...	Mathematics
1822	Thomas Turton Thomas Turton Thomas Turton, DD was the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge. He was Dean of Peterborough, Bishop of Ely and composer of Anglican hymns....	Mathematics
1826	George Biddell Airy George Biddell Airy Sir George Biddell Airy PRS KCB was an English mathematician and astronomer, Astronomer Royal from 1835 to 1881...	Astronomy
1828	Charles Babbage Charles Babbage Charles Babbage, FRS was an English mathematician, philosopher, inventor and mechanical engineer who originated the concept of a programmable computer...	Mathematics and computing
1839	Joshua King Joshua King Joshua King was the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge from 1839 to 1849.- References :...	Mathematics
1849	George Gabriel Stokes George Gabriel Stokes Sir George Gabriel Stokes, 1st Baronet FRS , was an Irish mathematician and physicist, who at Cambridge made important contributions to fluid dynamics , optics, and mathematical physics...	Physics and fluid mechanics
1903	Joseph Larmor Joseph Larmor Sir Joseph Larmor , a physicist and mathematician who made innovations in the understanding of electricity, dynamics, thermodynamics, and the electron theory of matter...	Physics
1932	Paul Dirac Paul Dirac Paul Adrien Maurice Dirac, OM, FRS was an English theoretical physicist who made fundamental contributions to the early development of both quantum mechanics and quantum electrodynamics...	Physics
1969	James Lighthill James Lighthill Sir Michael James Lighthill, FRS was a British applied mathematician, known for his pioneering work in the field of aeroacoustics.-Biography:...	Fluid mechanics
1979	Stephen Hawking Stephen Hawking Stephen William Hawking, CH, CBE, FRS, FRSA is an English theoretical physicist and cosmologist, whose scientific books and public appearances have made him an academic celebrity...	Theoretical physics
2009	Michael Green Michael Green (physicist) Michael Boris Green FRS is a British physicist and one of the pioneers of string theory. Currently a professor in the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics and a Fellow in Clare Hall at the University of Cambridge in England, he succeeded Stephen Hawking on 1 November 2009...	Theoretical physics