Isaac Newton

Sir Isaac Newton (1643–1727) was an English mathematician and physicist, a central figure of the Scientific Revolution. Born prematurely at Woolsthorpe Manor, he was so small his mother said he could fit in a quart mug. After an attempt to make him a farmer, he entered Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1661. After his bachelor's degree he developed his theories of calculus, optics and gravitation.

In 1669 he became Lucasian Professor at twenty-six. His Principia of 1687 set out laws of motion and universal gravitation, uniting terrestrial and celestial motion. Opticks (1704) gathered his work on light, built on the prism splitting white light into colours.

He privately rejected the Trinity and pursued alchemy. From 1696 he served at the Royal Mint, hunting counterfeiters during the Great Recoinage. President of the Royal Society from 1703 and knighted in 1705, he died in 1727, the first scientist buried in Westminster Abbey.