Person: Hopkinson, John

John Hopkinson was an English mathematician and engineer who applied mathematics to electricity.

After showing great abilities in mathematics, Hopkinson was awarded a scholarship to allow him to continue his study of that subject at Trinity College, Cambridge.
Although he had been awarded a Whitworth scholarship which would have allowed him to continue his mathematical studies at Cambridge, Hopkinson decided to put his mathematics to practical use in engineering.
There had been no chair of engineering at Owens College when Hopkinson studied there, but it is interesting to note that Osborne Reynolds was appointed to such a chair while Hopkinson was studying at Cambridge.
In 1872 Hopkinson was appointed as the engineering manager of Chance Brothers and Company, a glass manufacturing company in Birmingham.
In 1878 Hopkinson founded his own electrical engineering company.
Hopkinson was appointed professor of electrical engineering at King's College, London, in 1890.
When at the height of his powers Hopkinson was killed in a mountaineering accident while on holiday in Switzerland.
Although Hopkinson's life was cut short by the accident, he had already received several honours for his contributions of applying mathematics to engineering.

Born 27 July 1849, Manchester, England. Died 27 August 1898, Evalona, Val d'Herens, Switzerland.

View full biography at MacTutor

Origin England

Thank you to the contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0!

O’Connor, John J; Robertson, Edmund F: MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive