Abstract
SIR JOSEPH LARMOR, whose resignation of the Lucasian professorship of mathematics in the University of Cambridge is announced, succeeded Sir George Gabriel Stokes in the chair in 1903. Stokes had been elected so long ago as 1849, and one of the early acts of his successor was to edit his Scientific Correspondence (2 volumes, 1907). After being Senior Wrangler in 1880 and first Smiths Prizeman, Mr. Larmor (he was knighted in 1909) was elected to a fellowship in St. Johns College and was appointed professor of mathematics at Galway, but in 1885 he returned to Cambridge as College and University lecturer in mathematics. ther and Matter appeared in 1900, and his election as secretary of the Royal Society in 1901 (he had been a fellow since 1892) was a recognition of his eminence as a mathematical physicist. Scientific papers have continued to flow from his pen since 1881 or before, but the long-hoped-for treatise on electrodynamic theory did not materialise. The works of many younger men, however, clearly show the inspiration which they derived from his lectures. In 1929 the Cambridge University Press published two handsome volumes of Mathematical and Physical Papers with Sir Josephs own comments in the form of notes and appendices; a glance at the table of contents will give an idea of his enormous range of interests. In addition, his frequent letters in NATURE and elsewhere, though as a rule not easy to understand, have always been worth serious consideration.
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Sir Joseph Larmor, F.R.S.. Nature 130, 52 (1932). https://doi.org/10.1038/130052a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/130052a0