An introduction to John Herschel

Meet John Herschel,  much less famous today than either his father (William Herschel) or his aunt (Caroline Herschel), yet in his day he represented the very definition of what a scientist should be. 

In 1824, as BRLSI began, he too was just starting out. On Saturday 8 June 2024, BRLSI will host a conference dedicated to every aspect of the life & work of this great man, but for today let’s just get to know him. What did he do? Why should we care about him? What were his politics? What was his family life like? Come along on Wednesday 3 April and find out!

Emily Winterburn is one of the authors for the forthcoming Cambridge Companion to John Herschel. She is also the author of a biography of John’s aunt, Caroline Herschel (The Quiet Revolution of Caroline Herschel, 2017) and completed her PhD on the Herschel family in 2011. She is the former curator of astronomy at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich. Today she is a teacher and writer living in Leeds. She is also Honorary Vice-President of the Society for the History of Astronomy.