Special thanks to the Microsoft Corporation for their contribution to our site. The following information came from Microsoft Encarta. Newton, Sir Isaac , mathematician and physicist, one of the foremost scientific intellects of all time. Born at Woolsthorpe, near Grantham in Lincolnshire, where he attended school, he entered Cambridge University in ; he was elected a Fellow of Trinity College in , and Lucasian Professor of Mathematics in He remained at the university, lecturing in most years, until During two to three years of intense mental effort he prepared Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy commonly known as the Principia, although this was not published until As a firm opponent of the attempt by King James II to make the universities into Catholic institutions, Newton was elected Member of Parliament for the University of Cambridge to the Convention Parliament of , and sat again in Meanwhile, in he had moved to London as Warden of the Royal Mint.
He became Master of the Mint in , an office he retained to his death. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of London in , and in he became President, being annually re-elected for the rest of his life. His major work, Opticks, appeared the next year; he was knighted in Cambridge in As Newtonian science became increasingly accepted on the Continent, and especially after a general peace was restored in , following the War of the Spanish Succession, Newton became the most highly esteemed natural philosopher in Europe.
His last decades were passed in revising his major works, polishing his studies of ancient history, and defending himself against critics, as well as carrying out his official duties. Newton was modest, diffident, and a man of simple tastes. He was angered by criticism or opposition, and harboured resentment; he was harsh towards enemies but generous to friends. In government, and at the Royal Society, he proved an able administrator.
He never married and lived modestly, but was buried with great pomp in Westminster Abbey. Newton has been regarded for almost years as the founding examplar of modern physical science, his achievements in experimental investigation being as innovative as those in mathematical research.
He investigated the refraction of light by a glass prism; developing over a few years a series of increasingly elaborate, refined, and exact experiments, Newton discovered measurable, mathematical patterns in the phenomenon of colour.
