George Francis FitzGerald

George Francis FitzGerald was an Irish theoretical physicist known for hypothesising length contraction, which became an integral part of Albert Einsteins special theory of relativity. He was born on 3 August 1851 in Monkstown, Dublin, the son of the Reverend William FitzGerald, Professor of Moral Philosophy at Trinity College Dublin, who was consecrated Bishop of Cork, Cloyne and Ross in 1857. FitzGerald was homeschooled by a tutor who was the sister of George Boole, entered Trinity College Dublin at the age of 16 and graduated in 1871 in Mathematics and Experimental Science. He became a Fellow of Trinity College in 1877, was appointed Erasmus Smiths Professor of Natural and Experimental Philosophy in 1881, and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1883.