Christopher Wren

Christopher Wren, who lived from 1632 to 1723, was an English architect, astronomer, mathematician and physicist, best known as one of the most acclaimed architects in the history of England. Born in East Knoyle in Wiltshire, the only surviving son of a rector who later became Dean of Windsor, he entered Wadham College, Oxford, in 1650 and became part of the circle around John Wilkins that led to the Royal Society. After a fellowship at All Souls College he became Professor of Astronomy at Gresham College in 1657, where his lectures drew the men whose weekly meetings grew into the Royal Society, and in 1661 he was elected Savilian Professor of Astronomy at Oxford. He carried out physiological experiments on dogs, including what is now recognised as the first injection of fluids into the bloodstream of a live animal under laboratory conditions, and he supplied many of the anatomical drawings for Thomas Willis's Cerebri Anatome of 1664. Appointed Surveyor of Works to Charles II in 1669, he was given responsibility for rebuilding 52 City of London churches after the Great Fire of 1666, including St Paul's Cathedral, completed in 1710, and he served as president of the Royal Society from 1680 to 1682.