This is an exciting year for the University as we celebrate the life and legacy of one of our most renowned figures, William Thomson, or Lord Kelvin.
Lord Kelvin’s work is widely recognised as being the source of so many of the modern fields of scientific research that have shaped the world around us. By celebrating his life and work, we keep alive the tradition of invention, innovation and inspiration that is synonymous with the University of Glasgow.
Professor Sir Anton Muscatelli,
Principal and Vice-Chancellor of the University
The world has changed a great deal in the two centuries since William Thomson (Lord Kelvin) was born in Belfast on 26 June 1824.
Many of those changes are built on the pioneering work of Thomson, who died in 1907 with the title of Baron Kelvin of Largs, bestowed in recognition of his achievements as a scientist and a businessman.
Lord Kelvin was Professor of Natural Philosophy at the University of Glasgow for 53 years, from 1846 to 1899. His discovery work on heat and temperature created the science of thermodynamics and his applied work made possible transatlantic communication.
Today, 200 years later, I am proud to hold the title of Kelvin Chair of Natural Philosophy in the School of Physics & Astronomy.
I think Kelvin himself would be proud of the research underway at the University of Glasgow today. Our researchers are making their own breakthroughs across the spectrum of science and engineering.
We’re developing quantum technologies that enable us to see the invisible greenhouse gases or look through fog and smoke. We’re helping to build the ultra-fast communications networks of the future, supporting data-rich ways of working. We’re measuring the tiny ripples in spacetime called gravitational waves, forming new kinds of astronomy.
All across the University, just like Kelvin, we’re working to turn pure science into innovative technologies that can make an impact on the real world. We’re helping to build the city as a world leader for future tech through initiatives like the Glasgow Riverside Innovation District.
I hope that, 200 years from now, the people of the future will be living in a better world that Lord Kelvin helped create.
Miles Padgett,
Kelvin Chair of Natural Philosophy (Physics & Astronomy)
The work of Lord Kelvin is at the core of what we do in our Glasgow Centre for Sustainable Energy. An example being his pioneering studies on thermogeology, estimating the earth’s age from its cooling through combination of heat diffusion by conduction with Fourier’s Law. In fact, for his inaugural lecture at the University of Glasgow, Lord Kelvin selected terrestrial heat flow as an application of Fourier’s theories.
While my day-to-day appreciation of Lord Kelvin’s contributions to engineering, physics and mathematics is in applications to energy and thermodynamics, I also have a personal reason for feeling connected to him. Lord Kelvin was responsible for the Atlantic Cable, developing a new system for undersea telegraphy.
My maternal great-grandfather, Giovanni Di Pirro, who was born 45 years after Kelvin, led studies on inductive perturbations along telegraph and telephone circuits, including for the Rome–Berlin telephone line.
Professor Gioia Falcone,
Rankine Chair of Energy Engineering, James Watt School of Engineering
Lord Kelvin’s legacy has been hugely influential for my approach to research. Kelvin was a mathematical physicist par excellence: the remarkable power and usefulness of mathematical modelling, epitomised by Kelvin’s work across many fields, underpins so much of my research too – even in areas like gravitational-wave astrophysics that only really got going decades after Kelvin’s time.
I love Kelvin’s quote about this which says: “The fact that mathematics does such a good job of describing the Universe is a mystery that we don’t understand, and a debt that we will probably never be able to repay.” Amen to that!
Professor Martin Hendry,
Clerk of Senate and Vice Principal (Academic Services)
Although Lord Kelvin is more famous for his contributions to thermodynamics and the attribution of his title as the unit of absolute temperature, he made pioneering contributions to establishing modern telecommunications – both wireless and wired.
His contributions to the mathematical analysis of electricity and magnetism, including the basic ideas for the electromagnetic theory of light, are instrumental in understanding electromagnetics, which is a fundamental area for wireless communications.
His theoretical work on submarine telegraphy and his inventions for use on submarine cables aided Britain in capturing a preeminent place in world communication during the 19th century. His unique balance as a fundamental physicist and a practical engineer is rare and refreshing and a guiding light for modern-day researchers.
Professor Muhammad Imran,
Director of the Communications, Sensing and Imaging Hub, James Watt School of Engineering
Lord Kelvin is an institution in Glasgow. He has had an impact on every single physics course I have studied thus far. If you can keep track of all the constants, postulates and processes named after him, his footprint on physics is epic. With influencing not only the content we are taught but also how we are taught. Combining the theory of lectures with practical application and the skill building of lab projects. To be able to sit and study in the same room as his desk, to discuss physics where he sat, there is something so surreal about it.
Sophie Calderwood,
third year BSc in Physics with Astrophysics
As the recipient of the 2024 RSE Lord Kelvin medal, I was immensely pleased, since there is one especially strong point of connection between Kelvin’s work and my own research. Kelvin wrote: “I often say that when you can measure what you are speaking about, and express it in numbers, you know something about it; but when you cannot measure it, when you cannot express it in numbers, your knowledge is of a meagre and unsatisfactory kind.”
This quote sparked a longstanding collaboration with two veterinary colleagues at the University Vet School, Professors Jackie Reid and Andrea Nolan, and led to our work on developing assessment tools to quantify animal pain and health-related quality of life.
Measurement and data are fundamental aspects of all I do, so the quote resonates even more deeply across all my research areas whether in the environment, archaeology or sustainability spheres.
Marian Scott,
Professor of Environmental Statistics, School of Mathematics & Statistics
Kelvin lived through a revolutionary time, where insights into electricity and thermodynamics shaped the world around him like never before. During his long career he oversaw the rise and perfection of classical physics, while being acutely aware of its shortcomings, and died before the revolutions of quantum mechanics and relativity. He got many things right but also many things wrong. But in a way that is the beautiful way about science, you don’t always have to be right. It is not about being infallible, but about questioning what you think you know and try to find the best explanation you can come up with. I find it exciting to ponder what physicists in 200 years will understand about the world that we have no idea about today.
Daniel Fleischmann,
fourth year MSci in Physics
Lord Kelvin was not just a brilliant intellectual, he was a prolific innovator and successful entrepreneur. Those attributes are essential components of our current Innovation Strategy, in which we have set ourselves a mission to become an entrepreneurial University, discovering practical solutions that will help tackle the challenges of our time.
Lord Kelvin's close links with the University and the place in which we are anchored are evident in the time he spent here.
His work has left an outstanding legacy. As we look to the future to deliver innovations that will change the world, we can confidently say we are standing on the shoulders of giants.
Uzma Khan,
Vice Principal for Economic Development and Innovation and Deputy Chief Operating Officer
In my lecture course on Thermal Physics, Kelvin is a very prominent figure, and yet I think it is still a challenge to convey the genius of Kelvin to students, much more so than it is for Newton, Maxwell, Planck or Einstein. This is even more surprising considering the implications of thermodynamics for most areas of modern science and engineering. I reflect much on why this is the case and how this could be changed. I think this is partly because Kelvin transgressed our modern categorisation of science on the one side and engineering on the other.
Jörg Goette, Senior Lecturer, School of Physics & Astronomy
Museum collections are records, but that does not mean that they or their interpretation remain static or fixed.
What to make of lovingly-stored fragments of a lampshade allegedly broken by Kelvin, or scraps of wood, metal and leather in Ziploc bags laconically marked "Kelvin miscellaneous"?
We could treat these objects as sacred relics, but is this the kind of relationship we want to have with a real historical figure in all their 19th-century complexity?
As museum professionals we both conserve material traces of the past and facilitate the fresh interrogation of that material. New interpretations are waiting to be made, not just by us: I welcome all to come and interpret The Hunterian's Kelvin-related collections for themselves!
Nicky Reeves,
Curator of Scientific & Medical History Collections, The Hunterian