Isaac Newton

Isaac Newton (1642–1727) was an English mathematician and natural philosopher, born at Woolsthorpe in Lincolnshire after his father's death. At Cambridge, during the plague years of 1665 and 1666, he laid the foundations of the calculus, discovered the composition of white light, and began to think about gravity. The Principia Mathematica of 1687 set out the laws of motion and universal gravitation that governed physics for two centuries; the Opticks of 1704 reported his experiments on light. He was Lucasian Professor at Cambridge, Master of the Mint, President of the Royal Society for twenty-four years, and the first scientist to be knighted. He also wrote on alchemy and prophecy.