George Green (mathematician)

George Green was a British mathematical physicist born in Sneinton, now part of Nottingham, the son of a baker, in 1793. He had only about four terms of formal schooling, between the ages of eight and nine, and was otherwise almost entirely self-taught. His Essay on the Application of Mathematical Analysis to the Theories of Electricity and Magnetism, published in 1828, put the potential function at the centre of the subject and introduced the formula now known as Green's theorem and the concept now known as Green's function, used to solve differential equations. Little recognised in his lifetime, his work later underlay the electrical theories of William Thomson and James Clerk Maxwell. He died in 1841.