James Clerk Maxwell's Scottish chair

2008 ◽  
Vol 366 (1871) ◽  
pp. 1661-1684 ◽  
Author(s):  
John S Reid
Keyword(s):  
Natural Philosophy ◽  
Effective Teacher ◽  
Degree Programme ◽  
The University

This account of Maxwell as professor of natural philosophy at Marischal College, Aberdeen, fills in many details that have been left out of Maxwell's biographies. It discusses the degree programme that Maxwell taught on, the nature of his colleagues, the type of student he had in his classes and the range of activities involved in his teaching. Evidence is cited that Maxwell was an enthusiastic and effective teacher, contrary to the often repeated but thinly supported view to the contrary. Following a brief summary of Maxwell's research interests while at Aberdeen, the myth that Maxwell was sacked from the University of Aberdeen is exploded and the detail of why he moved on is spelt out.

Hugh James Rose’s Anglican Critique of Cambridge: Science, Antirationalism, and Coleridgean Idealism in Late Georgian England

2001 ◽  
Vol 33 (02) ◽  
pp. 218-242
Author(s):  
David A. Valone
Keyword(s):  
Natural Philosophy ◽  
Church Of England ◽  
Natural Theology ◽  
Religious Faith ◽  
Mathematical Work ◽  
Undergraduate Instruction ◽  
John Herschel ◽  
Anglican Theology ◽  
Georgian England ◽  
The University

On Commencement Sunday in the summer of 1826, Hugh James Rose ascended the pulpit of the University Church at Cambridge to deliver a sermon. As Rose surveyed the assembled crowd, he would have been well aware that before him sat the future of English political, religious, and intellectual life—present and future members of Parliament, the leaders and local prelates of the Church of England, and the next generation of Cambridge scholars. While commencement addresses today are rather formulaic in their celebratory character, the sermon Rose had prepared for that day was far from uplifting. Rose had chosen to preach on Ecclesiastes chapter eleven, verse five: “No man can find out the work, which God maketh, from the beginning to the end.” Using this passage as a decree upon the limits of human knowledge, Rose launched into a blistering attack on the University and the educational philosophy that he believed it espoused. Far from praising the University and its graduates, Rose called into question much of what Cambridge had been doing to educate its students. The essence of Rose’s critique was that the University had lost its way as a religious institution and had become dominated by the search for “knowledge of the material Universe.” Pursuing this end, Rose warned, was a tremendous danger, because in so doing Cambridge was failing to provide a proper moral and religious foundation for those who would guide the nation. Naturally, Rose’s sermon came as a shock to many of those gathered before him, especially since it not only took the University to task but also implicitly seemed to indict some of Rose’s closest friends. His sermon battered one of the girders of Cambridge intellectual and religious life, and of Anglican theology more generally: the notion that natural philosophy was an appropriate handmaiden to religion. The tradition of reasoning up from nature to the Creator had long flourished at Cambridge in the hands of both men of science and theologians. Most at Cambridge took for granted the compatibility between the study of God’s creation and religious faith. For the previous three decades Cambridge had made the works of alumnus William Paley, replete with the ways nature manifested the wisdom and goodness of God, a cornerstone of undergraduate instruction. Ironically, many of Rose’s acquaintances from his own undergraduate days at Cambridge were themselves involved in scientific and mathematical pursuits and were generally sympathetic to Natural Theology. His dearest friend at the University was William Whewell, an intellectual polymath who excelled in mathematics, physics, and mineralogy, as well as moral philosophy, history, and theology. Rose also was a close associate of John Herschel and Charles Babbage, men who were renowned for their astronomical and mathematical work. Himself a fairly accomplished mathematician a decade earlier, Rose even had considered publishing some work to support Herschel and Babbage’s efforts to revitalize Cambridge mathematics during his undergraduate days.

IMPACT ANALYSIS OF HEC- BASED TRAINING PROGRAMS ON THE PERFORMANCE OF THE UNIVERSITY TEACHERS IN PAKISTAN

2012 ◽  
Vol 01 (06) ◽  
pp. 35-40
Author(s):  
Khalid Hussain Shaikh ◽  
Ikhtiar Ahmed Ghumro ◽  
Asif Ali Shah ◽  
Faiz M. Shaikh ◽  
Tahira Afridi
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Personal Development ◽  
Impact Analysis ◽  
Training Programs ◽  
Effective Teacher ◽  
University Teachers ◽  
Instructional Activities ◽  
Teacher Aides ◽  
The Government ◽  
The University

The current research investigates the HEC based training for the University teachers in Pakistan and its impact on the performance on University teachers. The Higher Education Commission (HEC) in Pakistan seeks to improve the quality of teaching by University teachers. The Commission has initiated different forms of training according to the areas of expertise in order to improve skills and impact on the performance of University teachers. HEC based training plays a crucial role in the personal development among the University Teachers in Pakistan. Survey was conducted from 200 University teachers who have recently got training from HEC skill development or professional development training from HEC from all provinces. Structural questionnaire was design for reliability and accuracy the data. Analysis and evaluation was done by using GENSTAT statistical software. Major findings of the study showed that training should be provided according to discipline and more interactive training should be design for the University teachers. It was revealed that HEC based training not only equipped with knowledge but also improving the confidence level of the University teacher. Moreover due to the government policies, rules and regulations, such as introduction of the Tenure Track System, the and hiring the foreign faculty in various all Public sector universities it also has impact on the performance of students in job market. It revealed that teacher training was beneficial for professional development as well as for teaching performance. It also suggested that improved knowledge, skills and attitudes was necessary for the teacher aides to support the teaching program and facilitate learning and communication. It was further revealed that effective teacher aides required competencies in broad areas of human relations, instructional activities, non-instructional activities, and basic skills. The study concluded that basic and advanced level training is necessary for future training programs in Pakistan and 190 respondents responded to the questionnaires, by producing 95.0% response rate. Among which 70 % were male respondents and 30% were female respondents

Twelfth-century Cosmography, theDe secretis philosophie, and Māshā'allāh (Attr. to),Liber de Orbe

Traditio ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 67 ◽  
pp. 235-276
Author(s):  
Barbara Obrist
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Thirteenth Century ◽  
Natural Philosophy ◽  
Lunar Eclipse ◽  
Latin Text ◽  
Central Section ◽  
The Difference ◽  
The University ◽  
University Of Manchester ◽  
The Universe

TheLiber de orbe, attributed to Māshā'allāh (fl. 762–ca. 815) in the list of Gerard of Cremona's translations, stands out as one of the few identifiable sources for the indirect knowledge of Peripatetic physics and cosmology at the very time Aristotle's works on natural philosophy themselves were translated into Latin, from the 1130s onward. This physics is expounded in an opening series of chapters on the bodily constitution of the universe, while the central section of the treatise covers astronomical subjects, and the remaining parts deal with meteorology and the vegetal realm. Assuming that Gerard of Cremona's translation of theLiber de orbecorresponds to the twenty-seven chapter version that circulated especially during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, it was, however, not this version, but a forty-chapter expansion thereof that became influential as early as the 1140s. It may have originated in Spain, as indicated, among others, by a reference to the difference of visibility of a lunar eclipse between Spain and Mecca. Unlike the twenty-seven chapterLiber de orbe, this expanded and also partly modified text remains in manuscript, and none of the three copies known so far gives a title or mentions Māshā'allāh as an author. Instead, the thirteenth-century witness that is now in New York attributes the work to an Alcantarus:Explicit liber Alcantari Caldeorum philosophi. While no Arabic original of the twenty-seven chapterLiber de orbehas come to light yet, Taro Mimura of the University of Manchester recently identified a manuscript that partly corresponds to the forty-chapter Latin text, as well as a shorter version thereof.

scholarly journals The Meteorological Observations in Coimbra and the Portuguese Participation in Weather Forecasting in Europe

2011 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 135-162 ◽  
Author(s):  
António Leonardo ◽  
Décio Martins ◽  
Carlos Fiolhais
Keyword(s):  
Weather Forecasting ◽  
Natural Philosophy ◽  
Meteorological Station ◽  
Scientific Investigation ◽  
Magnetic Observatory ◽  
Early Nineteenth Century ◽  
Meteorological Observatory ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Meteorological Observations ◽  
The University

In the early nineteenth century, regular meteorological observations started at the Faculty of Natural Philosophy of the University of Coimbra (FPUC). From 1854 to 1856 these observations were published in O Instituto, a journal of an academic society of the same name, founded in Coimbra in 1852. This new area of science aroused great interest, offering itself as unexplored territory waiting for scientific investigation. In reaction to the pioneering work at the Polytechnic School of Lisbon of Guilherme Pegado, who founded the first meteorological observatory in Portugal in 1854, the FPUC established a Meteorological and Magnetic Observatory in Coimbra. The main actor was, from 1863, the physicist Jacinto António de Sousa. In the twentieth century, the increasing need for weather forecasting, especially at sea, led to the creation of the Meteorological Services of the Navy in which Carvalho Brandão played a pivotal role. It was the beginning of an international cooperation that brought Jacob Bjerknes to Portugal. He addressed a conference at Coimbra recommending the creation of a meteorological station in the Azores, to relay observational data from vessels travelling in the Atlantic. The Portuguese meteorological services were scattered in various institutions until 1946, when the National Meteorological Services (NMS) were created. Based on articles published in O Instituto and on the activities of the academy with the same name, we provide an overview of the evolution of meteorology in Portugal until the establishment of the NMS, with particular emphasis on the work of the Meteorological and Magnetic Observatory at the University of Coimbra.

Thomas Ranken Lyle, 1860 - 1944

1945 ◽  
Vol 5 (14) ◽  
pp. 32-49
Keyword(s):  
Heart Failure ◽  
Northern Ireland ◽  
Natural Philosophy ◽  
Trinity College ◽  
Family Tree ◽  
The Family ◽  
The University

Sir Thomas Ranken Lyle, M.A., Sc.D. (Dublin), F.R.S., formerly Professor of Natural Philosophy in the University of Melbourne, died of heart-failure at his home in Walsh Street, South Yarra, Melbourne, on 31 March 1944, in his eighty-fourth year. Born at Coleraine, Northern Ireland, on 26 August 1860, he was the second son of Hugh Lyle of Greenmount, Coleraine, and Jane (née Ranken) of Lisbuoy, Moneycarrie. The family tree shows connexions of the Lyle family with those of Church, Orr, Patton and other names well known, as I am told, in London- derry County. An early ancestor is said to be that Archbishop Adam Loftus of Dublin, who is credited, though not without dissent, as having been entrusted by Queen Elizabeth with the foundation of Trinity College, the first Irish university.

Electrification of Air by Flame

1890 ◽  
Vol 16 ◽  
pp. 262-263
Author(s):  
William Thomson
Keyword(s):  
Natural Philosophy ◽  
Class Room ◽  
The University

In continuation of experiments on the electricity of air within doors, which I made twenty-seven years ago, and which are described in §§ 296–300 of my Electrostatics and Magnetism, a series of observations was commenced under my instructions at the end of April last, within the Natural Philosophy Class Room and Laboratory, the Bute Hall, the University Tower, and other places inside and outside the buildings of Glasgow University, by Mr Magnus Maclean, official assistant to the Professor of Natural Philosophy, and Mr Goto of Tokio, Japan, for the purpose of endeavouring to find a relation between the electrification of air within a building and the atmospheric potential in its neighbourhood outside; and of finding causes which produced or changed the electrification of any given mass of air.

scholarly journals OBITUARY

2007 ◽  
Vol 49 (3) ◽  
pp. 589-595
Author(s):  
Ian Anderson
Keyword(s):  
Natural Philosophy ◽  
History Of Mathematics ◽  
Albert Einstein ◽  
Theory Of Relativity ◽  
The Family ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Set Up ◽  
The University ◽  
Mathematics Department

Daniel Martin B.Sc., M.A., Ph.D., F.R.S.E. was born in Carluke on 16 April 1915, the only child of William and Rose Martin (née Macpherson). The family home in which he was born, Cygnetbank in Clyde Street, had been remodelled and extended by his father, and it was to be Dan's home all his life. His father, who was a carpenter and joiner, had a business based in School Lane, but died as a result of a tragic accident when Dan was only six. Thereafter Dan was brought up single handedly by his mother.After attending primary school in Carluke from 1920 to 1927, Dan entered the High School of Glasgow. It was during his third year there that he started studying calculus on his own. He became so enthused by the subject that he set his sights on a career teaching mathematics, at university if at all possible. On leaving school in 1932, he embarked on the M.A. honours course in Mathematics and Natural Philosophy at the University of Glasgow. At that time the Mathematics Department was under the leadership of Professor Thomas MacRobert; the honours course in Mathematics consisted mainly of geometry, calculus and analysis, and the combined honours M.A. with Natural Philosophy was the standard course for mathematicians. A highlight of his first session at university was attending a lecture on the origins of the general theory of relativity, given on 20th June 1933 by Albert Einstein. This was the first of a series of occasional lectures on the history of mathematics funded by the George A. Gibson Foundation which had been set up inmemory of the previous head of the Mathematics Department. From then on, relativity was to be one of Dan's great interests, lasting a lifetime; indeed, on holiday in Iona the year before he died, Dan's choice of holiday reading included three of Einstein's papers.

scholarly journals John Graham Kerr, 1869-1957

1958 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 155-166 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Natural Philosophy ◽  
Thomas Carlyle ◽  
University Of Edinburgh ◽  
And Mathematics ◽  
The University ◽  
Short Time ◽  
Three Sisters ◽  
Broad Interest ◽  
Special Time ◽  
Selection Of

John Graham Kerr was born on 18 September 1869, at Arkley, Herts, the son of James Kerr, M.A., a former Principal of Hoogly and Hindu College, Calcutta, and of Sybella Graham, of Hollows, Dumfriesshire. He was third in a family of four with three sisters. His father was a well-known educationalist and the author of various works dealing with a number of topics including Indian educational problems, English orthography and aspects of human nature, and Thomas Carlyle. Graham Kerr, as he was known throughout the greater part of his life, lost his mother in early childhood and grew up under the influence of his father who although his tastes were mainly literary had a broad interest in general science, especially in natural history and evolution, in which he was widely read. His father superintended the early stages of his education, including latin and mathematics, and encouraged the reading of such books as Darwin’s The voyage of the Beagle , Waterton’s Wanderings , Wallace’s Amazon and Malay Archipelago , etc. In addition, his library contained a large selection of classical works, especially poetry and history, and Graham Kerr was brought up in a general atmosphere of literary culture. His schooling began at the parish school of Dalkeith, Midlothian, under William Young, a good example of the old-fashioned type of parish schoolmaster who did not hesitate to give special time and attention to any boy who in his opinion possessed the natural capacity to benefit by his teaching. After a short time at the Collegiate School, Edinburgh, he passed on to the Royal High School, where he was specially influenced by Munn, the mathematics master under whose tuition he became Dux of the Fifth Form. He subsequently enrolled in the University of Edinburgh and first concentrated on higher mathematics and natural philosophy. He then studied geology, botany and zoology and finally decided to follow out the curriculum in medicine. This was interrupted when on a wintry afternoon in February 1889, this young medical student of nineteen, returning home from his classes picked up a copy of Nature at the book-stall in Waverley Station, and read an announcement which in his own words ‘determined the whole future of my life’.

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