Christopher Wren, who died 300 years ago this year, is famed as the architect of St Paul’s Cathedral. But he was also Gresham Professor of Astronomy, and one of the founders of a society “for the promotion of Physico-Mathematicall Experimental Learning” which became the Royal Society.
This lecture explored some of Wren’s mathematical work on curves including spirals and ellipses and the mathematics behind his most impressive architectural achievement – the dome of St Paul’s.
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/sites/default/files/transcript/2023-03-07-1800_Hart-T.pdf
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/sites/default/files/watch-downloads/2023-03-07-1800_Hart-P.pdf
Part of:
Wren 300 Unexpected Mathematical Lives
This event was on Tue, 07 Mar 2023
Professor Sarah Hart
Professor of Geometry (2020 – )
Sarah Hart is the first woman Professor of Geometry at Gresham College, and was appointed in 2020. She is Professor of Mathematics and until recently was Head of Mathematics and Statistics at Birkbeck, University of London.
She studied at Oxford and Manchester, gaining her PhD in 2000. Postdoctoral research and teaching followed, including a prestigious Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council Fellowship, before she was appointed to a lectureship at Birkbeck in 2004. She has been Professor of Mathematics there since 2013. In 2021 she began a three-year term as President of the British Society for the History of Mathematics.
Sarah is an active researcher, publishing mainly in the area of pure mathematics known as group theory, which has many applications both inside and outside of mathematics, for example in coding theory and cryptography. She is passionate about communicating mathematics and is a sought-after public speaker. She is particularly interested in the links between mathematics, culture and creativity: many of her public lectures and talks in schools are on this topic, especially on mathematics and art.
https://www.bbk.ac.uk/our-staff/profile/8004985/sarah-hart
helen the hare 