Lawyers in Engineering, Math & Science
Ibn Sina (Avicenna) |
12th Century physician and jurist who wrote extensively on topics |
(980 -1037) |
ranging from Aristotle to astronomy. |
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Nicolaus Copernicus |
Studied canon law at Bologna and was appointed a canon. He |
(1473 -1543) |
eventually received his doctorate in law from Ferrara and served as |
counsel to his uncle, a bishop, before engaging in full time scientific | |
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pursuits. |
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François Viète |
Received his law degree from the University of Poitiers. After brief |
(1540 -1603) |
period of practice, he became engaged as councillor to various |
governments and eventually, Henry IV of France. A self-professed | |
non-mathematician, he was nonetheless actively involved in numerous, | |
seminal practical and theoretical projects. He introduced the first | |
cohesive symbolic algebra system, which influenced Descartes' work. | |
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He is sometimes called "the father of algebra". |
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Francis Bacon |
Holder of many public British legal offices, including that of Lord |
(1561 -1626) |
Chancellor, Bacon's prolific writing is credited with the establishment |
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of the scientific method and birth of the scientific age. |
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Claude Mydorge |
Educated as an attorney in France. Prolific writer in the areas of |
(1585 -1647) |
geometry and optics. Designed and built optical instruments, including |
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ones used by his friend, René Descartes. |
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René Descartes | Said to have studied law and obtained degree from Poitiers. |
(1596 -1650) | Inspirations during life as a soldier led to seminal work in mathematical |
philosophy. His theories provided groundwork for computational | |
framework pursued by Leibniz through Turing and beyond. | |
Catalog of the Scientific Community |
Wolfgang Lochman | German lawyer, mathematician and engineer. Wrote Instrumentum |
(1594 -1642) | mathematicorum in 1626, which describes numerous self-developed, |
scientific measuring devices which improved upon the work of such | |
predecessors as Kepler. | |
Catalog Description of Lochman's Book |
Claude Hardy | Active French parliamentary lawyer. He engaged in theoretical |
(1598 -1678) | work concerning the problem of duplication of the cube. More |
significantly, he brought mathematicians together, including | |
Descartes and Mydorge and supported their efforts, particularly | |
those of Descartes. | |
U. of St. Andrews: History of Mathematics |
Pierre de Fermat | Received law degree from Orléans and became parliamentary |
(1601 -1665) | councillor, achieving membership in elite circles of law. Throughout |
life, he maintained active mathematical friendships. His work in | |
number theory is the most famous of his numerous contributions to | |
theoretical and applied mathematics. | |
U. of St. Andrews: History of Mathematics |
Otto von Guericke | Studied law at Jena and entered public life at Magdeburg as alderman |
(1602 -1686) | magistrate, and mayor. Developed air pumps, static machines and |
mercury barometers. He maintained correspondence with Leibniz and | |
other prominent scientific and mathematical personalities. | |
Catalog of the Scientific Community |
Wm. G. von Leibniz | Received doctorate of law from Altdorf. His work in philosophy and |
(1646 -1716) | mathematics, aimed at the representation and unification of knowledge, |
formed a groundwork for modern computation. | |
U. of St. Andrews: History of Mathematics |
Willem 'sGravesande | Legal education from Leiden. Practiced law and diplomacy in the |
(1688 -1742) | Netherlands. Working in England, he was elected to the Royal Society |
& associated with Newton, becoming a key proponant of Newtonian | |
theory. Eventually made professor of mathematics, astronomy and | |
philosophy at Leiden. | |
U. of St. Andrews: History of Mathematics |
Chester Moore Hall | British attorney. Invented, in 1729-30, the compound achromatic |
(1703 -1771) | lens system, significantly contributing to the improvement of tools |
used in astronomical investigation. | |
Greater Hartford Astronomical Society Description |
Ezra Stiles | Member of Connecticut Bar Association and president of Yale |
(1727 -1795) | University. A correspondent of Benjamin Franklin and an early |
investigator of electrical phenomena, he is credited with the early | |
encouragement of science at Yale and within the new nation. | |
eMuseum - Brief Biography |
Johann von Goethe | Practiced law with his father in Frankfurt. Left to develop his writing |
(1749 -1832) | abilities. In addition to his humanistic and literary work, he wrote |
about the place of the senses in scientific investigation and studied | |
numerous scientific fields, including geology, color, meteorology and | |
plant physiology. | |
Minn. State at Mankato: Page on Goethe |
Thomas Cooper | Political activist and eventually, a Pennsylvania judge. His opposition |
(1759 -1839) | to the Sedition Act earned a jail sentence. Became professor of |
chemistry at a number of universities, and was president of South | |
Carolina College. | |
Thomas Cooper Society Home Page |
Amedeo Avogadro |
Successful lawyer who became Italy's first chair of mathematical |
(1776 -1856) |
physics at Turin. His work on the determination of masses remains |
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essential theory within physics. |
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Amos Eaton |
Entered adult life as a practicing lawyer in New York. Eventually |
(1776 -1842) |
undertook career as surveyor & botanist. A founder of the |
Rensselaer School, where he pioneered educational principles grounded | |
in empirical, laboratory-based methods. A proponent of women's | |
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education within arts and sciences in higher education. |
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Francis Horner |
A Scottish lawyer and English barrister, Horner, at the age of twenty, |
(1778 -1817) |
published a translation of Euler's algebra work and wrote a biography |
of the mathematician. He also worked in chemistry and anatomy. | |
With Henry Brougham and others, founded the Edinburgh Review. | |
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He was elected to Parliament as a Whig. |
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Henry Brougham |
Also a Scottish lawyer and English barrister, Brougham was the |
(1778 -1868) |
youngest person to read a paper on mathematics to the Royal |
Society. He founded the Edinburgh Society of Physics. He remained | |
an active trial lawyer and was a Whig member of Parliament, an | |
opponent of slavery, a womens' rights activist and eventually was | |
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made lord chancellor. |
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Benjamin Silliman |
Although educated as a lawyer, Silliman was offered Yale's first |
(1779 -1864) |
professorship of chemistry and natural history. He undertook self- |
education in these areas as well as medicine. Noted as a pioneer | |
of American scientific education, his specimens and collections | |
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comprised one of the best in the nation. |
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James Hamilton |
American lawyer and scientist. First to establish bequest to the |
(1793 -1873) |
Smithsonian Institution for advances in science. |
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Sir John Wrottesley |
While practicing law in England, he constructed an observatory. His |
(1798 -1867) |
work was judged to merit election to the Royal Society and he later |
served as its president. His recommendations for improved | |
navigational techniques were adopted by the government. | |
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Abraham Lincoln |
Member of the Illinois bar and only United States President to be |
(1809 -1865) |
awarded a patent. His 1848 submission described a device which |
could move boats over sand bars through the use of bouyancy | |
chambers. | |
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Sir William R. Grove | Member of Lincoln's Inn. Knighted and made a Queen's Counsel and |
(1811 -1896) | finally, a judge. In the process, he participated in early cases relating to |
photographic processes and forensic evidence of poisoning. Credited | |
with the invention of the fuel cell in 1839 which was based on the | |
work of Sir Humphrey Davy. | |
University of Illinois Plasma Material Group on Grove | |
Hebrew University of Jerusalem Page of Grove | |
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Arthur Cayley | Practicing attorney who published mathematical work while still an |
(1821 -1895) | undergraduate. Published over 250 mathematics papers during his |
tenure as a lawyer. Gave up the law to become professor of | |
mathematics at Cambridge. | |
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Alford Bray Kempe |
London barrister. At Cambridge, he was a student of Arthur Cayley. At |
(1849 -1922) | law, he served as an Anglican Canon lawyer. His ongoing work in the |
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field of mathematics earned him election to the Royal Society. He is |
perhaps best known as a contributor to the investigation of the | |
Four Color Problem and did seminal work in the area of the psychology | |
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of mathematical investigation. |
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Ashutosh Mookerjee |
Lawyer and mathematician. Ended a distinguished legal career as a |
(1864 -1924) | Kolkata High Court judge. He was knighted in 1911. Hailed as one of the |
major figures in Indian education, he was Vice Chancellor of Calcutta | |
University, where he instituted inititatives in math and science | |
education. | |
Biographical Site |
Jacques Ellul |
Earned doctor of law degree at Paris. Prolific writer and one of |
(1912 -1994) | of the earliest modern thinkers to confront the problems of new |
technologies and their relationship to society. | |
The Jacques Ellul Web Site |