List of mathematicians, physicians, and scientists educated at Jesus College, Oxford

The crest of Jesus College above the entrance on Ship Street

Jesus College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. The college was founded in 1571 by Queen Elizabeth I at the request of Hugh Price, a Welsh clergyman, who was Treasurer of St David's Cathedral in Pembrokeshire. The college still has strong links with Wales, and about 15% of students are Welsh.[1] There are 340 undergraduates and 190 students carrying out postgraduate studies.[2] Women have been admitted since 1974, when the college was one of the first five men's colleges to become co-educational.[3] Old members of Jesus College are sometimes known as "Jesubites".[4]

Mathematicians who have studied at Jesus College include Nigel Hitchin (Savilian Professor of Geometry at Oxford 1997–2016), Jonathan Borwein (a former Rhodes Scholar who has held professorial appointments in Canada and Australia), and Jim Mauldon (who taught at Oxford before moving to the United States to teach at Amherst College in Massachusetts). David E. Evans is Professor of Mathematics at Cardiff University, and H. W. Lloyd Tanner was Professor of Mathematics and Astronomy at one of its predecessor institutions, the University College of South Wales and Monmouthshire. Several noted individuals from biology, botany and zoology were educated at the college, including the Welsh clergyman Hugh Davies (whose Welsh Botanology of 1813 was the first publication to cross-reference the Welsh-language and the scientific names of plants), Edward Bagnall Poulton (Professor of Zoology at Oxford) and James Brontë Gatenby (Professor of Zoology at Trinity College, Dublin). Frank Greenaway was Keeper of the Department of Chemistry at the Science Museum in London for over 20 years, and the physicist Chris Rapley was director of the museum 2007–2010. Other physicists who are Old Members of the college include Michael Woolfson (a former Professor of Physics at the University of York) and Edward Hinds (whose work on ultra-cold matter won him the Rumford Medal of the Royal Society in 2008). Edwin Stevens, who studied Natural Science at the college, designed the world's first wearable hearing aid, and Sir Graham Sutton became director-general of the Meteorological Office ('Met Office').

The college had its own science laboratories from 1907 to 1947, which were overseen (for all but the last three years) by the physical chemist David Chapman, a Fellow of the college from 1907 to 1944. At the time of their closure, they were the last college-based science laboratories at the university.[5] They were named the Sir Leoline Jenkins laboratories, after a former principal of the college. Scientific research and tuition (particularly in chemistry) became an important part of the college's academic life after the construction of the laboratories.[6] The brochure produced for the opening ceremony noted that the number of science students at the college had increased rapidly in recent years, and that provision of college laboratories would assist the tuition of undergraduates, as well as attracting to Jesus College those graduates of the University of Wales who wished to continue their research at Oxford. One of the college science lecturers had a link with Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI); 17 students joined ICI between the two World Wars, some of whom (such as John Rose) reached senior levels in the company. The laboratories became unnecessary when the university began to provide centralised facilities for students, and they were closed in 1947.[6]

  1. ^ "Jesus College and Wales". Jesus College, Oxford. Archived from the original on 9 August 2011. Retrieved 6 September 2012.
  2. ^ Krebs, Lord. "Welcome to Jesus College". Jesus College, Oxford. Retrieved 6 September 2012.
  3. ^ "Jesus College Oxford – The Modern Day". Jesus College, Oxford. Retrieved 6 September 2012.
  4. ^ Orringe, Natalie (2005). "Jesubites go forth!" (PDF). The Jesus College Newsletter (Trinity Term). Jesus College, Oxford: 2–3. Archived from the original (PDF) on 26 March 2009. Retrieved 28 March 2007.
  5. ^ Bowen, E. J.; Laidler, Keith J. (2004). "Chapman, David Leonard (1869–1958)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/32364. Retrieved 2 April 2009. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  6. ^ a b Long, Derek (1995–1996). "Sir Leoline Jenkins Laboratories 1907–47". JCR: 46–57.