Lifelong Accomplishments

1773
-Thomas Young is born

1792
-Young decided on a career in medicine.

1793
-Presented a paper before the Royal Society in which he attributed the accommodation of the eye to its muscular structure

1794
-Elected to membership of the Royal Society
-After completing his medical studies at Edinburgh and Göttingen, he returned to London to practice but continued his scholarly studies at Emmanuel College, Cambridge
-His uncle died, making him financially independent, allowing him to pursue his real interests

1798
-Some investigations on sound and light formed the starting point for his theory of interference

1799
-Began his medical practice in London
-While attending medical school, he discovered how the lens of the human eye changes shape to focus on objects at different distances

1800
-Published his experiments on Sound and Light in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society

1801
-Discovered the cause of astigmatism
-Young and Helmholtz initiated the three color theory of perception. That the eye constructed its sense of color using only three receptors, red, green and blue
-Appointed Professor of Natural Philosophy at the Royal Institution
-Appointed Professor of Physics at Cambridge University
-Presented a detailed account of his theory of interference in the Bakerian Lecture On the Theory of Light and Colors

1802
-He was appointed foreign secretary to the Royal Society, which he held to the end of his life
-He resigned his position as a professor at the Royal Institution, because he felt that it was affecting his medical career
-Received the MB degree from Cambridge

1803
-He announced his demonstration of the interference of light
-Made other significant contributions to physical optics in the areas of double refraction and dispersion.

1807
-Received degree of MD from Cambridge

1814
-On one of Napoleon's expedition, he began studying the texts of Rosetta Stone, later contributing to the deciphering of the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic writing
-Retired from medical practice to devote full-time work to his scientific studies, which he continued for the remaining years of his life

1817
-Proposed that light waves were transverse (vibrating at right angles to the direction of travel), rather than longitudinal (vibrating in the direction of travel).

1829
-Thomas Young dies