Piers bursill hall biography of christopher

It’s the subject that put Cambridge on the map. Its alumni include Isaac Newton, Bertrand Russell and Steven Hawking — and now, some students think it’s lost its edge.

The dispute turns on what the Maths course should include.

Piers bursill hall biography of christopher

To the Faculty, the answer seems simple: maths alone. But to these students, it’s more: it’s history and ethics.

The controversy comes as the Maths Department removed talks on the history of maths from its lecture list for this term; but in defiance of the decision, a group of Maths students have formed a society to keep learning with their former don.

Dr Piers Bursill-Hall, had been giving lectures on the history of maths for over 40 years but, without consultation, found his name removed from the Department’s lecture list.

In 2018, following Bursill-Hall’s retirement two years earlier, his lectures went from being classed as “non-examinable,” to “not organised by the faculty” — a move widely seen a