Robert Hooke
(1635-1703)

Robert Hooke was an English scientist who performed many experiments with elastic bodies and developed improvements in timepieces. He also formulated the laws of gravitation independently of Newton, of whom he was a contemporary. Upon the founding of the Royal Society of London in 1662, Hooke was appointed its first curator.

From Mechanics of Materials, 4th Ed., by J.M. Gere and S.P. Timoshenko, PWS Publishing, 1997, pp. 835-42.