James Gregory is described as "the greatest scientist associated with St. Andrews". Gregory contributed many different concepts and helped popularize the new teachings of his time. CHILDHOOD AND EDUCATION James Gregory was born in a small town just outside Aberdeen, called Drmoak, Scotland. When he was little, Giacomo suffered from cortana fever for a year and a half. Due to the fever he suffered from fevers at intervals of 72 hours. His mother introduced him to basic mathematics and geometry at an early age. Gregory was home-schooled until his father, a wealthy minister, died when James was about 13. After his father's death, his older brother, David, sent him to grammar school in Aberdeed. After finishing grammar school, James attended Marischal College, University of Aberdeen. KEY FINDINGS Shortly after college he began studying optics and telescope construction and wrote his first book, Optica Promota ^1. In 1663 James went to London where he published Optica Promota, which covered such topics as lenses, mirrors, reflection and refraction, parallax, and transits. Optica Promota also discussed Gregory's most famous invention, the reflecting telescope. Later it became known and the Gregorian Telescope. However, the telescope was only discussed at the time because mirror polishers were unable to properly polish mirrors, so it was never made until after Gregory's death. He also invented the factive burning glass. In 1664 Giacomo went to Puda, Italy, and studied with Stefano degli Angeli in geometry, mechanics, and astronomy. While there, he published two more works Vera circuli et hyperbolae in which James showed how to calculate logarithms by finding the areas of parallelograms inscribed between a hyperbola and its asymptotes, thus leading to the term "hyperbolic logarithms" in 1667. ^2 E Geometriae para universalis where he attempted to prove that (little form I can't write...looks like a mix with pi) and and are transcendent, unfortunately his arguments contained a subtle error which was published in 1668, just before he left the Italy for London. In 1668 he was elected a member of the Royal Society of London. James was appointed professor of mathematics at the University of St. Andrews in 1669, where he greatly improved the mathematics department. He purchased instruments such as clocks, astrolabes, and an armillary sphere and also designed an observatory. However, the university masters began to dislike Gregory's new teachings.