George Gabriel Stokes - Life, Science and Faith

Alastair Wood, BSc 1964, PhD 1968

Sir George Gabriel Stokes was one of the most important mathematical physicists of the nineteenth century. He made a wide range of contributions, most notably, in continuum mechanics, optics and mathematical analysis. His name is familiar to generations of scientists and engineers through the various physical laws and mathematical formulae named after him, such as the Navier-Stokes equations in fluid dynamics.

Born in Skreen, County Sligo in 1819 into a family of academics, clergymen and physicians, he became the longest serving Lucasian Professor of Mathematics in Cambridge University. Impressive as his own scientific achievements were, he made an equally important contribution as a sounding board for his contemporaries, providing good judgement and mathematical rigour in his wide correspondence, especialy with Lord Kelvin in Glasgow.

During his 31 years as a Secretary, and later President, of the Royal Society he played a major role in the direction of British Science. Stokes was a distinguished public servant (he was an expert witness at the Court of Inquiry into the 1879 Tay Bridge disaster) and, outside his own field, MP for Cambridge University. He was keenly interested in the relation between science and religion and wrote at length on this interaction.

ISBN: 978-0-19-882286-8