Karl Pearson

(1857 - 1936)

After studying mathematics at the University of Cambridge, Karl Pearson completed his studies in Berlin, where he attended lectures on Darwinism. After returning to England, he took a position at University College, London, determined to use applied mathematics to measure the effects of Darwinian natural selection. In 1885 he founded the Men and Women’s Club, a group that met to discuss relations between the sexes from an anthropological and historical perspective as well as the possibility of platonic friendship between men and women. He later founded the journal Annals of Eugenics, and in 2020 University College, London, denamed two buildings bearing his name.