Publish or Perish? [Microwave Surfing]

While doing research on the Nobel laureate P.A.M. Dirac (1902-1984) for his last column, the author came across some interesting bits in the history of science. He noticed that Newton, Dirac, and Hawking were all holders of the Lucasian Chair of Mathematics at Cambridge University, England. The Lucasian Chair of Mathematics was deeded in December 1663 at Cambridge University, England, as a result of a gift from Henry Lucas, M.P. for the university. The first holder of the Lucasian Chair was Isaac Barrow (1630-1677), who made fundamental theoretical contributions to geometrical optics. He was followed by Sir Isaac Newton as the second holder of the chair and then some three hundred years later by Stephen Hawking, who occupied the chair for thirty years (1979-2009), retiring from the chair on 1 October 2009 at the age of 67 (as required by the university rules). The current holder of the chair is Michael Green, a cofounder of string theory. Many holders of this prestigious academic chair have made important contributions to the field of electromagnetics. The author summarizes the contributions of several other famous holders of the chair and their publishing output. [Note: This column first appeared in the December 2009 issue of IEEE Antennas and Propagation Magazine.]