John wallis biography summary page
John wallis biography summary page
John wallis biography mathematics.
About Wallis
Biography
Mathematics and the Royal Society
John Wallis (1616-1703) was a central player in the scientific revolution of the second half of the seventeenth century.
After having made his mark as a cryptographer on the parliamentary side during the Civil Wars, he was elected Savilian professor of geometry in the University of Oxford in 1649. Through seminal publications such as De sectionibus conicis and Arithmetica infinitorum he made ground-breaking contributions to the development of modern mathematics, while at the same time he played an important part in the establishment of the Royal Society shortly after the Restoration in 1660.
The fact that Wallis has been involved in the institution from its earliest beginnings in the 1640s gives his accounts of its origins in his Pro vita sua and Defence of the Royal Society unparalleled historical significance.
Wallis recognized from early on the importance of communication in the growth of scientific knowledge.
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