Robert Hooke

Born on July 18, 1635, on the Isle of Wight, Robert Hooke became one of the great experimenters of 17th-century England. He studied at Oxford, worked closely with leading natural philosophers, and went on to serve as Curator of Experiments for the Royal Society, where he was expected to produce a steady stream of demonstrations and discoveries.

Hooke’s interests were remarkably wide. In Micrographia (1665), he revealed the hidden details of the natural world through the microscope and introduced the word "cell" for the tiny compartments he saw in cork. He also gave his name to Hooke’s law, describing how springs stretch under force, and he worked on questions involving astronomy, fossils, clocks, air pumps, and the behavior of light.

He was not only a scientist but also an important surveyor and architect in post-Fire London, working with Christopher Wren on rebuilding projects after the Great Fire of 1666. Much about his appearance remains uncertain: no securely confirmed portrait of Hooke survives, and the image often used for him is only a possible identification.