Stephen Parkinson (1 August 1823, Keighley – 2 January 1889) was a British mathematician.
Parkinson went up to St John's College, Cambridge as a sizar in 1841 and graduated as Senior Wrangler in 1845, beating William Thomson. He was elected to a Fellowship at St John's in the same year. He was ordained in 1851, made BD in 1855 and DD in 1869.
He was College lecturer in mathematics, tutor and President (1865-89). He was made a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1870.
Parkinson was the author of two mathematical textbooks, Elementary Treatise on Mechanics (1855) and A Treatise on Optics (1859).
Famous quotes containing the words stephen and/or parkinson:
“I forsak the, Kyng Herowdes, and thi werkes alle;
Ther is a chyld in Bedlem born is beter than we alle.’”
—Unknown. St. Stephen and King Herod (l. 6–8)
“A committee is organic rather than mechanical in its nature: it is not a structure but a plant. It takes root and grows, it flowers, wilts, and dies, scattering the seed from which other committees will bloom in their turn.”
—C. Northcote Parkinson (1909–1993)