The University of Cambridge's 1702 chair of chemistry is the oldest continuously occupied chair of chemistry in Britain. The lives and work of the 1702 chairholders over the past three hundred years, described here, paint a vivid picture of chemistry as it slowly transformed from the handmaiden of alchemists and adjunct of medical men into a major academic discipline in its own right. The book has twelve chapters, covering all fifteen chairholders, from Giovanni Francesco Vigani, a contemporary and friend of Isaac Newton, through Smithson Tennant, discoverer of osmium and iridium, and Alexander Robertus Todd, Nobel Laureate and elucidator of the structure of key components of the double helix, to the current chairholder, master molecule maker Steven Victor Ley. Containing personal memoirs and historical essays by acknowledged experts, this book will engage all who are interested in the pivotal role chemistry has played in the making of the modern world.
