James Clerk Maxwell was born on November 13, 1831 in Edinburgh, Scotland. He was educated at Edinburgh University and Trinity College, Cambridge. He became Professor of Physics and Astronomy at King's College, University of London, and later, Professor of Experimental Physics at Cambridge. He was a friend of Michael Faraday, and he supervised the building of the famous Cavendish Laboratory at Cambridge University. He died of cancer at Cambridge on November 5, 1859. |
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His greatest work was done in the areas of the theory of electricity and magnetism, where he put Faraday's ideas in precise mathematical form. He discovered the identity of light, electricity and magnetism, which he described as:
"We can scarcely avoid the inference that light consists in the transverse undulation of the same medium which is the cause of electric and magnetic phenomena."
He published his research in his famous book "Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism", which inspired Albert Einstein.
