FAMOUS SCIENTIST

Greymouth Evening Star, 18 September 1946, Page 5

FAMOUS SCIENTIST

DEATH OF SIR JAMES JEANS LONDON, Sept. 17. One of the world’s most notable astronomers and the author of popular books on astronomy and cosmogony,Sir James Jeans, has died in Britain. He celebrated his sixty-ninth birthday six days ago. Few men of science were honoured with as many medals and honorary degrees as Sir James Jeans, who began his career as a teacher of applied) mathematics and became a major figure in astronomy. In 1900. he was Smith’s Prizeman, at Trinity College, Cambridge, and in 1901 was made a Fellow of Trinity College. Three years later he became university lecturer in mathematics and for five years from 1905 he was professor of applied mathematics at Princeton University. He returned to teach at Cambridge in 1910. His. popular books have sales unprecedented for scientific books. Seventeen thousand copies of “The Mysterious Universe” were sold the first week after its publication in England, and in 1934 it was announced that 300,000 copies of his last four books had been sold. His highest honours came in 1939, when he was awarded the Order of Merit, which is limited to 24 persons.