From Isaac Newton to Stephen Hawking, the University of Cambridge has earned an unrivalled reputation for scientific achievement. This passage introduces some of the people who have contributed to this tradition of excellence.

　　Isaac Newton (1642-1727)
　　Sir Isaac Newton was probably the greatest mathematician and physicist of all time. He arrived at Cambridge in 1661, became a fellow of Trinity College in 1667 and was appointed Lucasian Professor of Mathematics in 1669. He firmly established the University's unrivalled reputation for mathematics and astronomy that is maintained today by the current Lucasian Professor, Stephen Hawking.
　　Newton's scientific discoveries were momentous. His groundbreaking work on calculus underpins all modern scientific activity. Other remarkable legacies include the invention of the first reflective telescope, as well as his celebrated insights into gravity and the operation of planetary forces.

　　Darwin (1809-1882)
　　As an undergraduate at Christ's College, Darwin was more interested in collecting beetles than studying for his degree in Theology. During this time he became friendly with John Stevens Henslow, Professor of both Minerology and Botany, who encouraged Darwin's interest in natural history and subsequently arranged for him to be appointed naturalist on HMS Beagle.
　　Darwin's experiences on the Beagle and particularly his observations of fossils in South America, led him to formulate the principle of natural selection. He worked on this revolutionary idea in secret for twenty years, before publishing On the Origin of Species in 1859.

　　Thomson (1871-1937)
　　In 1895, JJ Thomson, discoverer of the electron, appointed a young Ernest Rutherford as one of his first graduate students at the Cavendish Laboratory. In 1898 Rutherford left Cambridge and spent the next twenty years establishing a world-class reputation with his pioneering work on the structure of the atom. In 1919 he was the obvious choice to take over from Thompson at the Cavendish, where he created an outstanding team of scientists who furthered his work in nuclear physics.
　　Many groundbreaking discoveries emerged from the Cavendish under Rutherford's direction, in particular Chadwick's work on the neutron. In 1932, John Cockcroft and Ernest Walton first split the atom.

　　Whittle (1907-1966)
　　Whittle was only 21 when he first mentioned his idea of turbo-jet flight to his employers at the Air Ministry. They did not show any interest and a patent he had taken out lapsed, as he did not have the funds to renew it. However, in 1934 the RAF sent him to Peterhouse as a mature student where his new ideas were encouraged.
　　When he left Cambridge, having obtained a first in Mechanical Sciences, he set up a company called Power Jets to develop his jet engine. The first test flight took place on 15 May 1941, and lasted seventeen minutes, having achieved a top speed of 370 mph.

　　Hawking (1942-)
　　Stephen Hawking, the current Lucasian Professor of Mathematics, has captured popular imagination with his research into the fundamental laws governing the Universe, in particular his 'Big Bang' theory and his conjecture that the Universe has no beginning or end.
　　Hawking carries on a tradition that stretches back through the centuries to Isaac Newton, who shared many of the same preoccupations with mathematical and astronomical theory. As a fellow of Gonville and Caius, Hawking is also maintaining his college's reputation for scientific discovery, started in the sixteenth century by William Harvey when he described how blood circulates round the human body.

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