Nicholas saunderson biography

Nicholas Saunderson

Nicholas Saunderson: The blind Lucasian Professor from Thurlstone

by Abeer Al-Ghouleh

Nicholas Saunderson was a mathematician who transcended his disability, to become the fourth Lucasian professor at Cambridge University: a prestigious post that has been held by scientists such as Isaac Newton and Stephen Hawking.

As his story shows, his sharp mind and natural sense of curiosity always helped Saunderson to channel setbacks into opportunities and persistently find unorthodox ways to pursue his education despite being blind at the age of one in an era before Braille.

Saunderson was born at Thurlstone, Yorkshire in January 1683. His father was a Yorkshireman who made a living as an exciseman.

When Saunderson was one year old, he caught smallpox and, due to abscesses forming in his eyes, he lost both his sight and his eyes.

Although he w