http://www.einsteins-emporium.com/science/micro/images/sm101-h1.jpg

During Robert Hooke's study at Oxford, he was among many great figures, such as; Thomas Willis, Seth Ward, Robert Boyle, John Wilkins, John Wallis, Christopher Wren and William Petty. Because he was among some of the greatest English scientists of the day he acquired skills in a wide range of disciplines. Sometime later he became an assistant to Robert Boyle, where he designed and built what is essentially the modern air pump. Around this same time he was also working on the idea of using springs instead of gravity for making a body vibrate in any posture. He soon discovered an instance of Hooke's Law but waited until 1678 to announce his law of elasticity in his lecture, Of Spring. At this time he could have made a fortune on a patent but refused to because he knew someone could improve on the design and make royalties. During the next few years Hooke had some financial problems as the Royal Society kept reducing his salary, until he came across the position of Professor of Geometry at Gresham College. In 1665 Robert released a book called Micrographia, which has many drawings and descriptions of minerals, animals, and plants under a microscope of which he also created. This book really got his fame in the scientific world started.

http://www.its.caltech.edu/~atomic/snowcrystals/earlyobs/micrographia.jpg

On top of being Professor of Geometry he was also City Surveyor, where he became good friends with Christopher Wren and helped design many buildings after the Great Fire of 1666. Many bitter disputes between fellow scientists occurred throughout Hooke's life. Him and Isaac Newton frequently had disagreements about who first thought of what and who got credit for what. Many times Hooke would always get ideas flowing but would usually move onto something else before he would finish and finalize an idea, thus other scientists would pick up where he left off and usually would never give any credit where credit was due. Throughout the last years of Robert's life he became very cynical and usually kept himself locked away from the world. He did publish a few more papers, of which contained many bitter remarks. A year before his death he became blind and bedridden due to swelling of the legs, possibly to blame on diabetes. Robert Hooke died on the 3rd of March 1703.