Sir James Jeans: President of the British Association

Abstract

ON account of the lamented death of Sir William Hardy, it became necessary to elect a new president of the British Association for the meeting to be held at Aberdeen in September next. The General Com mittee of the Association, which met for this purpose on Friday, March 2, elected Sir James Jeans to this office, and we understand that he has accepted the invitation to serve. It is scarcely too much to say that no man of science now living is better known than he is to intelligent readers—both scientific and lay—through his brilliant expositions of complicated physical and mathematical conceptions. These rare qualities have enabled him to open new realms of thought and inquiry to philosophers as well as ex perimentalists, and also to interest laymen in the development of ideas relating to the universe. These involve explanations of relativity, quantum and wave mechanics and other novel aspects of cosmogony with their philosophical implications. In literary style and scientific substance these works are among the best of their type ever produced; and their widespread circulation is a gratifying sign of public interest in intricate scientific subjects when made intelligible by artistic expression. What renders Sir James Jeans unique, however, is that he should possess this gift and at the same time be a leading authority in the field of mathematical physics and the author of those sub stantial contributions to the dynamical theory of gases and the mathematical theory of electricity and magnetism and dynamical astronomy, which led to his election into the Royal Society in 1906 and the award of a Royal medal in 1919. We may confidently anticipate that his presidential address to the British Association will enrich the literature of science and be worthy of the intellectual outlook of the great university and city in which it will be delivered.