Maxwell, James Clerk, surname also Clerk-Maxwell 1831-79
Scottish physicist

Born in Edinburgh, at the age of 15 he devised a method for drawing oval curves which was published by the Royal Society of Edinburgh. He studied mathematics, physics and moral philosophy at Edinburgh University, and later graduated from Cambridge as Second Wrangler. He was appointed Professor of Natural Philosophy at Marischal College, Aberdeen University (1856) and King's College London (1860). In 1871 he was appointed the first Cavendish Professor of Experimental Physics at Cambridge, where he organized the Cavendish Laboratory. Hepublished papers on the kinetic theory of gases, theoretically established the nature of Saturn's rings (1857), investigated colour perception and demonstrated colour photography with a picture of tartan ribbon (1861). He worked on the theory of electromagnetic radiation, and his Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism (1873) treated mathematically Michael Faraday's theory of electrical and magnetic forces and provided the first conclusive evidence that light consisted of electromagnetic waves. He suggested that electromagnetic waves could be generated in a laboratory - as Heinrich Hertz was to demonstrate in 1887. His work is considered to have paved the way for Albert Einstein and Max Planck. He was one of the greatest theoretical physicists the world has known.

Bibliography: Ivan Tolstoy, James Clerk Maxwell (1982)