JCMB

James Clerk Maxwell entered a discussion with another Blipper this morning, so this EB taken as I left work seemed appropriate. And the light was nice after the rain. I work in this brick edifice dedicated to JCM, and as I pass the plastic cast of his bust, the (defunct?) hologram of him, and walk across his equations set into the floor [all potential EB's!], I sometimes wonder what he'd think of it all.

He did his first degree at UoE and, given that he was publishing papers before he graduated (aged 19), the University can claim to have given him a pretty good start, scientifically. However, when he applied for the chair of Natural Philosophy (aged 29) the University appointed Tait and JCM went to King's London where he formulated the theory of electromagnetism. 

I feel that JCM would find it a bit rich for UoE to be embracing him so warmly!

Scientifically, JCM was the first person to unify two diverse fields theoretically: a fabulous conceptual breakthrough which led Einstein to describe Maxwell's work as the "most profound and the most fruitful that physics has experienced since the time of Newton".