| Administrative History | Duncan Farquharson Gregory (1813–1844) was the youngest son of James Gregory (1753 - 1821) and his wife, Isabella Macleod (c1772 - 1847).
He studied at the Edinburgh Academy from 1824 to 1827 and spent a winter in Geneva before returning to study in Edinburgh University. He then went to study in Trinity College, Cambridge, and graduated as 5th Wrangler in 1837. Although he spent his career in mathematics, he was also very interested in chemistry. He spent some of his time as a student at Cambridge assisting the professor of chemistry and was one of the founders of the Chemical Society there.
In 1837, he co-founded the Cambridge Mathematical Journal and was involved with the journal until just before his death. He tried unsuccessfully for the chair of mathematics at the university of Edinbugh in 1838 but was made a fellow of Trinity College in 1840 and gained his M.A. in 1841.
He specialised in the study of commutative operations and in developing a system of solid geometry through symmetical equations. He published many papers in the Cambridge Mathematical Journal and published 'Examples of the Processes of the Differential and Integral Calculus" in 1841. His 'Treatise on the Applications of Analysis to Solid Geometry' was published posthumously by William Walton in 1845. He died unmarried on 23 February 1844.
He had ten siblings, many of whom attained academic and professional distinction: John (1797 - 1869); Hugh (1799 - 1811); James Craufurd (1801 - 1832); William (1803 - 1858) and twin Donald (1803 - 1836); Jane Macleod (1805 - 1813); Elizabeth Forbes (1808 - 1811); Margaret Craufurd (1809 - 1849), who married her first cousin, William Pulteney Alison; Georgina (1811 - 1877); and Isabella (1816 - 1818). |