Edmond Halley ( 1656 - ? 1742 )

Birth: Haggerston, St Leonard's parish, Shoreditch, London, England (29 October or 08 November 1656) Death: Greenwich, London (14 January 1742 or 14 January 1743) Burial: Lee churchyard, near Greenwich, London Research Field: Astronomy, geophysics Education: St Paul's School, London; Queen's College, Oxford; MA (by royal mandate 1678); DCL (1710) Career: Sailed for St Helena to study the stars of the southern hemisphere (1676-1678); sent to Danzig by the Royal Society where he studied the observations of Johannes Hevelius (FRS 1664) (1679); travelled in France and Italy with Robert Nelson (FRS 1680) (1680-1681); Editor of 'Philosophical Transactions' (1685-1693); encouraged and assisted Isaac Newton (FRS 1672) in writing his 'Principia Mathematica' and paid for its printing (1687); was refused the Savilian chair of Astronomy, partly through the enmity of John Flamsteed (FRS 1677) (1691); Comptroller of the Mint at Chester (1696-1698); obtained command of the war sloop 'Paramour Pink' in order to study the variation of the compass (1698-1700); surveyed the tides and coasts of the British Isles (1701-1702); inspected the harbours of the Adriatic at the request of the Emperor Leopold and helped the imperial engineers in the fortification of the harbour at Trieste; Savilian Professor of Geometry (1703-1742); leading member of the committee to prepare Flamsteed's observations for the press; Hydrographer to Queen Anne; Astronomer Royal (1720); quarrelled with Newton over the non-publication of his observations (1727) Memberships: Foreign Member, Academie Royale des Sciences (1729) Membership: Fellow Election Date: 30/11/1678 Proposers: Sir Jonas Moore Council: Sec 1713-1721; VP 1729- , 1741-; Council 1683-1684; Clerk 1686-1699 Editor Phil.