Richard Cockburn Maclaurin ( ; June 5, 1870 – January 15, 1920) was a Scottish-born

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educator and mathematical

physicist A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate cau ...

. He was made president of

MIT The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the m ...

in 1909, and held the position until his death in 1920. During his tenure as president of MIT, the Institute moved across the

Charles River The Charles River ( Massachusett: ''Quinobequin)'' (sometimes called the River Charles or simply the Charles) is an river in eastern Massachusetts. It flows northeast from Hopkinton to Boston along a highly meandering route, that doubles b ...

from

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to its present campus in

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a College town, university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cam ...

. In Maclaurin's honor, the buildings that surround Killian Court on the oldest part of the campus are sometimes called the Maclaurin Buildings. Earlier, he was a foundation professor of the then Victoria College of the

University of New Zealand The University of New Zealand was New Zealand's sole degree-granting university from 1874 to 1961. It was a collegiate university embracing several constituent institutions at various locations around New Zealand. After it was dissolved in 196 ...

from 1899 to 1907. A collection of lecture theatres at the Kelburn campus of that university were named after him. He was also a professor at

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

from 1907 to 1908.

Personal

Maclaurin was born in Scotland, and was related to the noted Scottish mathematician

Colin Maclaurin Colin Maclaurin (; gd, Cailean MacLabhruinn; February 1698 – 14 June 1746) was a Scottish mathematician who made important contributions to geometry and algebra. He is also known for being a child prodigy and holding the record for bei ...

. He emigrated to New Zealand with his family at the age of four. In 1904 he married Alice Young of Auckland, and they had two sons. His brother James Scott Maclaurin (1864–1939) was a noted chemist, who invented a process for extracting gold with cyanide.

Education

* University Entrance Scholar, 1887,

Auckland Grammar School Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The most populous urban area in the country and the fifth largest city in Oceania, Auckland has an urban population of about I ...

''Auckland Grammar School List 2018'' (2018) p.122. * B.Sc. (Hons), Mathematics, 1890,

Auckland University College , mottoeng = By natural ability and hard work , established = 1883; years ago , endowment = NZD $293 million (31 December 2021) , budget = NZD $1.281 billion (31 December 2021) , chancellor = Cecilia Tarrant , vice_chancellor = Dawn F ...

. * BA, 1895 (12th wrangler); LL.D., 1904, St John's College, University of Cambridge.

Publications

* ''On the Nature and Evidence of Title to Realty'', 1901 * ''Treatise on the Theory of Light'', 1908

Honors

* Smith's Prize in Mathematics, 1896 *

Yorke Prize The Yorke Prize is awarded annually by the Faculty of Law at the University of Cambridge for an essay of between 30,000 and 100,000 words on a legal subject, including the history, analysis, administration and reform of law, "of exceptional qualit ...

in Law, University of Cambridge, 1898

References

External links

*
'MACLAURIN, Richard Cockburn'
from ''An Encyclopaedia of New Zealand'', edited by A. H. McLintock, originally published in 1966.

from ''History of the Office of the MIT President'', Institute Archives, MIT Libraries, October 2004.

{{DEFAULTSORT:Maclaurin, Richard Cockburn 1870 births 1920 deaths Presidents of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology University of Auckland alumni People educated at Auckland Grammar School Victoria University of Wellington faculty Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge

Richard Richard is a male given name. It originates, via Old French, from Old Frankish and is a compound of the words descending from Proto-Germanic ''*rīk-'' 'ruler, leader, king' and ''*hardu-'' 'strong, brave, hardy', and it therefore means 'stro ...

American mathematicians