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Sir James Hopwood Jeans
Sir James Hopwood Jeans OM FRS (11 September 1877 - 16 September 1946) was an English physicist, astronomer and mathematician.
Born in Ormskirk, Lancashire, the son of William Tul...view moreSir James Hopwood Jeans OM FRS (11 September 1877 - 16 September 1946) was an English physicist, astronomer and mathematician.
Born in Ormskirk, Lancashire, the son of William Tulloch Jeans, a parliamentary correspondent and author, Jeans was educated at Merchant Taylors’ School, Northwood, Wilson’s Grammar School, Camberwell and Trinity College, Cambridge.
Jeans was elected Fellow of Trinity College in October 1901, and taught at Cambridge, but went to Princeton University in 1904 as a professor of applied mathematics. He returned to Cambridge in 1910. He made important contributions in many areas of physics, including quantum theory, the theory of radiation and stellar evolution. Together with Arthur Eddington, he is a founder of British cosmology.
His scientific reputation is grounded in the monographs The Dynamical Theory of Gases (1904), Theoretical Mechanics (1906), and Mathematical Theory of Electricity and Magnetism (1908). After retiring in 1929, he wrote a number of books for the lay public, including The Stars in Their Courses (1931), The Universe Around Us, Through Space and Time (1934), The New Background of Science (1933), and The Mysterious Universe. These books made Jeans fairly well known as an expositor of the revolutionary scientific discoveries of his day, especially in relativity and physical cosmology.
Jeans was knighted in 1928. He was also the recipient of numerous other awards and honours, including Smith’s Prize of Cambridge University (1901); Fellow of the Royal Society in May (1906); Adams Prize of Cambridge University (1917); Royal Medal of the Royal Society (1919); Hopkins Prize of the Cambridge Philosophical Society (1921-1924); Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society (1922); Franklin Medal of the Franklin Institute (1931); and Member of the Order of Merit (1939).
He died in Dorking, Surrey in 1946, aged 69.view less