Profession: physical scientist

Whewell met Owen at school, and Babbage, Herschel and Peacock at Cambridge. He did an experiment with Airy, sailed with Wordsworth, and visited Ely Cathedral with Ruskin. He taught de Morgan, Thackeray and Tennyson, knew Roget and Talbot, and was a close academic colleague of Sedgwick and Lyell. Widely consulted, Whewell originated still-current scientific terminology with Lyell and with Faraday, and famously rose to Coleridge’s challenge by coining the word ‘scientist’. Jones was a close friend. Despite a famous debate with John Stuart Mill, they never met. Herschel praised the unparalleled breadth and depth of Whewell’s learning.