WEBVTT 00:00:00.519 --> 00:00:03.700 A 500 -year -old academic tradition really shouldn't 00:00:03.700 --> 00:00:06.419 still be dictating the highest echelons of modern 00:00:06.419 --> 00:00:10.400 university life. Yet here we are. Yeah, it's 00:00:10.400 --> 00:00:13.160 quite the anomaly. It really is. So I want you 00:00:13.160 --> 00:00:17.199 to imagine an incredibly exclusive VIP club for 00:00:17.199 --> 00:00:19.460 the absolute brightest, most dedicated minds 00:00:19.460 --> 00:00:22.019 in the world. Right. And the bouncer at the door 00:00:22.019 --> 00:00:25.379 of this club is literally the British monarch. 00:00:25.519 --> 00:00:27.800 That is a very accurate way to put it. Welcome 00:00:27.800 --> 00:00:30.059 to today's deep dive. We are thrilled you are 00:00:30.059 --> 00:00:32.700 joining us. Today we're opening up a comprehensive 00:00:32.700 --> 00:00:35.560 Wikipedia article simply titled Regis Professor 00:00:35.560 --> 00:00:39.700 and we are going to use it as the sort of historical 00:00:39.700 --> 00:00:42.340 time machine. It is a deceptively simple premise, 00:00:42.460 --> 00:00:44.679 really. We're examining a very specific list 00:00:44.679 --> 00:00:47.020 of academic titles. But as we comb through this 00:00:47.020 --> 00:00:48.780 material today, we're actually tracing the very 00:00:48.780 --> 00:00:51.079 evolution of human learning. Exactly. We are 00:00:51.079 --> 00:00:53.259 looking at how a royal tradition maps directly 00:00:53.259 --> 00:00:55.939 onto the changing survival needs of civilization 00:00:55.939 --> 00:00:59.100 over half a millennium. So our mission for this 00:00:59.100 --> 00:01:01.439 deep dive is to unpack what this elite title 00:01:01.439 --> 00:01:04.519 actually means, explore the quirks of its history, 00:01:04.680 --> 00:01:07.680 and use these unique academic chairs to discover 00:01:07.680 --> 00:01:10.760 exactly what types of knowledge society has valued 00:01:10.760 --> 00:01:14.700 most all the way from the year 1497 up to 2016. 00:01:15.719 --> 00:01:17.700 It's a fascinating lens through which to view 00:01:17.700 --> 00:01:20.739 human progress. By looking at the specific subjects 00:01:20.739 --> 00:01:23.099 that monarchs chose to elevate at specific points 00:01:23.099 --> 00:01:25.760 in time, we get this unvarnished look at what 00:01:25.760 --> 00:01:28.120 humanity considered essential for survival and 00:01:28.120 --> 00:01:31.019 progress in those eras. Stripped of all the usual 00:01:31.019 --> 00:01:33.379 narrative noise. Exactly. It's a beautifully 00:01:33.379 --> 00:01:35.900 analytical way to view history. Okay, let's unpack 00:01:35.900 --> 00:01:39.019 this. What exactly is a regis professor? Right, 00:01:39.079 --> 00:01:41.400 getting down to basics. Basically, it's a university 00:01:41.400 --> 00:01:43.879 professor in the United Kingdom or Ireland who 00:01:43.879 --> 00:01:46.530 holds royal patronage. or appointment. And we 00:01:46.530 --> 00:01:48.750 should clarify, it is a very unique feature of 00:01:48.750 --> 00:01:50.950 academia in that specific part of the world. 00:01:51.090 --> 00:01:53.310 Yeah, this isn't just an honorary degree handed 00:01:53.310 --> 00:01:55.549 out for a good PR moment, right? Oh, not at all. 00:01:55.629 --> 00:01:58.049 This is an active, fiercely contested academic 00:01:58.049 --> 00:02:01.390 chair. The appointment process alone speaks volumes 00:02:01.390 --> 00:02:03.349 about the weight this title carries. Because 00:02:03.349 --> 00:02:06.370 it's an incredibly rigorous gauntlet. It really 00:02:06.370 --> 00:02:08.770 is. The university and the national government, 00:02:08.949 --> 00:02:11.909 they handle the initial heavy lifting. So that 00:02:11.909 --> 00:02:14.530 means the global advertisements, the intense 00:02:14.530 --> 00:02:18.629 peer review interviews vetting the absolute top 00:02:18.629 --> 00:02:21.550 tier of international academics. Standard, highly 00:02:21.550 --> 00:02:24.210 competitive academic stuff. Right. But they do 00:02:24.210 --> 00:02:27.659 not make the final call. After all of that modern 00:02:27.659 --> 00:02:30.319 bureaucratic and academic vetting, the final 00:02:30.319 --> 00:02:32.580 appointment is actually made by the current monarch. 00:02:32.860 --> 00:02:35.680 It's just such a fascinating bottleneck. You 00:02:35.680 --> 00:02:38.159 survive the most grueling academic peer review 00:02:38.159 --> 00:02:41.039 on the planet, but your final job offer requires 00:02:41.039 --> 00:02:44.699 the literal signature of the crown. Yeah. Because 00:02:44.699 --> 00:02:48.439 of that royal imprimatur, and because these professorships 00:02:48.439 --> 00:02:51.180 are relatively rare, being appointed to a Regis 00:02:51.180 --> 00:02:53.800 chair is considered the ultimate academic flex. 00:02:54.099 --> 00:02:56.460 It really creates a very specific microculture 00:02:56.460 --> 00:02:58.960 within these universities. And that microculture 00:02:58.960 --> 00:03:01.439 includes an incredible naming convention. Oh, 00:03:01.460 --> 00:03:03.479 this is my favorite part. These professors are 00:03:03.479 --> 00:03:06.240 so elevated in the academic hierarchy that they 00:03:06.240 --> 00:03:08.280 traditionally drop the word professor entirely. 00:03:08.699 --> 00:03:13.259 They are addressed simply as Regis. I want you, 00:03:13.379 --> 00:03:15.219 the listener, to just imagine that for a second. 00:03:15.479 --> 00:03:18.319 Imagine walking into a high -stakes meeting and 00:03:18.319 --> 00:03:21.979 introducing yourself using a single monarch -approved 00:03:21.979 --> 00:03:24.599 Latin prefix. It's the academic equivalent of 00:03:24.599 --> 00:03:27.599 being recognizable by just one name, like a pop 00:03:27.599 --> 00:03:29.900 star. Exactly. It projects absolute authority. 00:03:30.259 --> 00:03:33.080 But underneath that prestige, there is a very 00:03:33.080 --> 00:03:35.520 strict philosophy governing why these chairs 00:03:35.520 --> 00:03:38.319 even exist in the first place. They are not created 00:03:38.319 --> 00:03:40.780 casually. No, they aren't. Let's look at the 00:03:40.780 --> 00:03:43.520 origin story. The very first Regis Professorship 00:03:43.520 --> 00:03:46.460 was founded in 1497 by the Scottish King James 00:03:46.460 --> 00:03:49.300 V at the University of Aberdeen. And the field 00:03:49.300 --> 00:03:51.939 is key here. It was in medicine. Right. What's 00:03:51.939 --> 00:03:54.080 fascinating here is the incredibly strict criteria 00:03:54.080 --> 00:03:56.539 required for creating a new chair. The source 00:03:56.539 --> 00:03:58.539 makes it clear that they are only instituted 00:03:58.539 --> 00:04:00.259 in disciplines that are judged to be fundamental 00:04:00.259 --> 00:04:02.979 and for which there is a continuing and significant 00:04:02.979 --> 00:04:05.879 need. Fundamental and continuing and significant 00:04:05.879 --> 00:04:08.629 need. Yes. That implies the monarch and the government 00:04:08.629 --> 00:04:11.430 are making a definitive declaration that a specific 00:04:11.430 --> 00:04:14.090 field of study is crucial to the bedrock of their 00:04:14.090 --> 00:04:16.670 society. Exactly. Yeah. And we can see exactly 00:04:16.670 --> 00:04:18.889 what they meant by fundamental if we look at 00:04:18.889 --> 00:04:20.850 the early chairs established at Cambridge and 00:04:20.850 --> 00:04:24.990 Oxford in the 1540s. That list is a perfect snapshot 00:04:24.990 --> 00:04:27.930 of the 16th century intellectual loadout. It 00:04:27.930 --> 00:04:30.629 really is. At Cambridge and Oxford around 1540, 00:04:30.829 --> 00:04:33.490 the subjects deemed worthy of a regis chair were 00:04:33.490 --> 00:04:37.439 civil law, divinity, Greek, Hebrew, and physic. 00:04:37.639 --> 00:04:40.620 When you analyze that specific grouping, it reflects 00:04:40.620 --> 00:04:43.579 a deeply religious, classical, and foundational 00:04:43.579 --> 00:04:46.439 view of education. So let's break that down. 00:04:46.560 --> 00:04:49.160 Divinity. Divinity underscores the absolute central 00:04:49.160 --> 00:04:52.399 role of theology and the church in 16th century 00:04:52.399 --> 00:04:55.019 statecraft. It was inseparable from politics. 00:04:55.550 --> 00:04:57.910 Then you have Greek and Hebrew. Right. And in 00:04:57.910 --> 00:05:00.589 the context of the 1540s, this is the height 00:05:00.589 --> 00:05:02.689 of the Renaissance humanist movement and the 00:05:02.689 --> 00:05:04.610 Reformation. So they needed people who could 00:05:04.610 --> 00:05:07.800 read the original texts. Exactly. The crown needed 00:05:07.800 --> 00:05:10.139 scholars who could bypass the Latin Vulgate and 00:05:10.139 --> 00:05:12.579 read ancient texts and biblical scriptures in 00:05:12.579 --> 00:05:14.680 their original forms. It was about controlling 00:05:14.680 --> 00:05:16.639 the narrative of the ancient world and religious 00:05:16.639 --> 00:05:19.180 doctrine. Precisely. Then you add civil law, 00:05:19.319 --> 00:05:21.860 which is obviously necessary for governing a 00:05:21.860 --> 00:05:24.500 complex, growing society. Yeah, you need administrators. 00:05:24.839 --> 00:05:27.800 You need a legal framework. And finally, physic, 00:05:27.980 --> 00:05:30.720 which is basically the baseline need to understand 00:05:30.720 --> 00:05:33.160 the human body and cure disease. Right. God, 00:05:33.259 --> 00:05:37.230 the law. ancient wisdom, and raw physical survival. 00:05:37.529 --> 00:05:41.339 It is a very tight... specific worldview. And 00:05:41.339 --> 00:05:43.480 for a very long time, that worldview remained 00:05:43.480 --> 00:05:47.060 relatively static. It did. The process of adding 00:05:47.060 --> 00:05:50.500 a new Regis chair was incredibly slow, reflecting 00:05:50.500 --> 00:05:52.699 a society that believed the pillars of knowledge 00:05:52.699 --> 00:05:55.480 were essentially already established. But that 00:05:55.480 --> 00:05:58.779 exclusivity, of course, bred intense institutional 00:05:58.779 --> 00:06:01.339 rivalries. Oh, absolutely. Here's where it gets 00:06:01.339 --> 00:06:03.980 really interesting, because the desperation to 00:06:03.980 --> 00:06:06.959 attain that ultimate academic flex led to some 00:06:06.959 --> 00:06:09.750 incredible posturing. crazy things for status. 00:06:09.970 --> 00:06:12.430 There is a fantastic historical anecdote from 00:06:12.430 --> 00:06:14.750 the source material. It's from 1708 involving 00:06:14.750 --> 00:06:17.129 a man named William Scott Primus. He was the 00:06:17.129 --> 00:06:18.910 first professor of Greek at the University of 00:06:18.910 --> 00:06:20.910 Edinburgh. This is such an early masterclass 00:06:20.910 --> 00:06:24.129 in academic vanity. It really is. So William 00:06:24.129 --> 00:06:27.129 Scott Primus desperately wanted the clout. He 00:06:27.129 --> 00:06:30.290 was widely referred to with the honorific Regis 00:06:30.290 --> 00:06:32.730 professor. He let his peers call him that. He 00:06:32.730 --> 00:06:35.209 didn't correct them. No, he opulated within the 00:06:35.209 --> 00:06:38.230 university as if he held the royal warrant. But 00:06:38.230 --> 00:06:41.329 there was one glaring problem. That's a minor 00:06:41.329 --> 00:06:43.949 detail. He totally failed to secure the actual 00:06:43.949 --> 00:06:46.769 grant from the crown. Right. Adopting the royal 00:06:46.769 --> 00:06:49.009 branding without the royal paperwork. He just 00:06:49.009 --> 00:06:51.550 faked it till he made it. It highlights the psychological 00:06:51.550 --> 00:06:55.089 hold this title had on the academic elite. You 00:06:55.089 --> 00:06:57.629 have this 18th century scholar strutting around 00:06:57.629 --> 00:07:00.529 campus, absorbing the deference of his colleagues 00:07:00.529 --> 00:07:03.529 while secretly knowing the monarch. has absolutely 00:07:03.529 --> 00:07:05.870 no idea who he is. The fallout from that kind 00:07:05.870 --> 00:07:07.949 of posturing when discovered would be devastating 00:07:07.949 --> 00:07:10.750 to an academic reputation. Total career ruination. 00:07:11.110 --> 00:07:12.850 But it shows that the title was viewed as the 00:07:12.850 --> 00:07:15.050 only true validation of intellectual supremacy. 00:07:15.509 --> 00:07:17.949 And speaking of validation, the geography of 00:07:17.949 --> 00:07:20.529 these chairs also tells a complex geopolitical 00:07:20.529 --> 00:07:23.329 story. We have to look at the anomaly regarding 00:07:23.329 --> 00:07:26.069 Trinity College Dublin. Yeah, the Irish anomaly 00:07:26.069 --> 00:07:30.110 is fascinating. Trinity College Dublin has several... 00:07:30.399 --> 00:07:33.540 Deeply historic Regis chairs. Some very old ones. 00:07:33.620 --> 00:07:36.100 Very old. A Regis professor of divinity established 00:07:36.100 --> 00:07:42.180 in 1600, physic around 1637, laws in 1668. They're 00:07:42.180 --> 00:07:45.480 undeniably woven into this ancient academic tradition. 00:07:45.819 --> 00:07:48.279 Right. But because Ireland left the United Kingdom 00:07:48.279 --> 00:07:51.100 in 1922, becoming its own independent state, 00:07:51.339 --> 00:07:54.199 the British monarch no longer appoints the professors 00:07:54.199 --> 00:07:57.670 to those specific Irish chairs. It operates like 00:07:57.670 --> 00:08:00.110 a constitutional ghost limb. That's a great way 00:08:00.110 --> 00:08:02.550 to put it. The chairs remain. The history is 00:08:02.550 --> 00:08:05.250 deeply embedded in the institution. But the political 00:08:05.250 --> 00:08:08.550 reality shifted drastically, severing that direct 00:08:08.550 --> 00:08:10.750 line to the crown. The appointment mechanism 00:08:10.750 --> 00:08:12.769 had to be fundamentally altered because the territory 00:08:12.769 --> 00:08:15.490 was no longer under royal jurisdiction. It is 00:08:15.490 --> 00:08:17.470 a perfect example of how these professorships 00:08:17.470 --> 00:08:19.949 don't exist in a vacuum. No, they are tethered 00:08:19.949 --> 00:08:22.389 to the political and geographic realities of 00:08:22.389 --> 00:08:24.290 their time. Absolutely. And looking at geographic 00:08:24.290 --> 00:08:27.110 realities and institutional pride, the undisputed 00:08:27.110 --> 00:08:29.110 heavyweight champion of the Regis world is the 00:08:29.110 --> 00:08:31.889 University of Glasgow. By a wide margin. They 00:08:31.889 --> 00:08:34.210 currently possess the highest number of extant 00:08:34.210 --> 00:08:38.090 Regis chairs of any university, holding 14. 14 00:08:38.090 --> 00:08:41.320 chairs concentrated in one institution. is a 00:08:41.320 --> 00:08:43.980 massive accumulation of royal patronage. It's 00:08:43.980 --> 00:08:46.519 wild. It is an impressive concentration. And 00:08:46.519 --> 00:08:49.659 looking at when Glasgow acquired many of those 00:08:49.659 --> 00:08:52.600 chairs provides a perfect bridge to the next 00:08:52.600 --> 00:08:54.820 major shift in human knowledge. Right, because 00:08:54.820 --> 00:08:57.100 the definition of what was considered fundamental. 00:08:58.110 --> 00:09:00.470 was about to undergo a massive transformation. 00:09:00.950 --> 00:09:03.190 We move out of the era where Greek and divinity 00:09:03.190 --> 00:09:05.490 dominated the conversation. If we connect this 00:09:05.490 --> 00:09:08.490 to the bigger picture, the addition of new subjects 00:09:08.490 --> 00:09:11.450 over the centuries perfectly maps human progress. 00:09:11.909 --> 00:09:14.669 You can literally read the timeline of the scientific 00:09:14.669 --> 00:09:17.129 and industrial revolutions just by looking at 00:09:17.129 --> 00:09:19.450 the dates these new chairs were created. The 00:09:19.450 --> 00:09:21.870 18th and 19th century boom makes this incredibly 00:09:21.870 --> 00:09:25.230 clear. In 1785, Edinburgh gets a Regis Professor 00:09:25.230 --> 00:09:27.830 of Astronomy. Which is key. This isn't just about 00:09:27.830 --> 00:09:29.750 stargazing, right? This is the era of global 00:09:29.750 --> 00:09:33.070 naval expansion. Yes. The crown needs advanced 00:09:33.070 --> 00:09:35.950 navigation for the Royal Navy and for global 00:09:35.950 --> 00:09:39.429 trade roads. Then, in the early 1800s, botany 00:09:39.429 --> 00:09:42.629 and forensic medicine appear at Glasgow and Edinburgh. 00:09:43.250 --> 00:09:45.629 Forensic medicine is particularly telling. How 00:09:45.629 --> 00:09:48.769 so? Well, the 19th century city was growing rapidly. 00:09:49.440 --> 00:09:52.100 Urbanization brought new types of crime, complex 00:09:52.100 --> 00:09:55.059 public health crises, and a sudden need for state 00:09:55.059 --> 00:09:58.100 -level medical jurisprudence. Oh, wow. The Crown 00:09:58.100 --> 00:10:01.000 recognized that policing and public health required 00:10:01.000 --> 00:10:03.639 rigorous scientific backing. That makes a lot 00:10:03.639 --> 00:10:06.419 of sense. Then comes 1840 at the University of 00:10:06.419 --> 00:10:09.299 Glasgow. A Regis Professor of Civil Engineering 00:10:09.299 --> 00:10:12.460 and Mechanics is established. That 1840 chair 00:10:12.460 --> 00:10:15.360 in civil engineering is a profound marker. It 00:10:15.360 --> 00:10:17.440 really feels like a turning point. It shows the 00:10:17.440 --> 00:10:19.360 monarchy and the government realizing that fundamental 00:10:19.360 --> 00:10:22.179 knowledge was no longer purely about ancient 00:10:22.179 --> 00:10:25.580 languages or classical law. The world was industrializing. 00:10:25.639 --> 00:10:27.779 Past. Glasgow was becoming the workshop of the 00:10:27.779 --> 00:10:29.860 world. They needed steam engines. They needed 00:10:29.860 --> 00:10:32.240 shipyards. They needed vast railway networks. 00:10:32.639 --> 00:10:35.600 So to maintain a continuing and significant need 00:10:35.600 --> 00:10:38.480 for their society, they had to formally elevate 00:10:38.480 --> 00:10:41.019 the applied sciences. That's exactly right. The 00:10:41.019 --> 00:10:43.120 survival and prosperity of the British Empire 00:10:43.120 --> 00:10:46.940 now depended on engineering. The Regis list acts 00:10:46.940 --> 00:10:49.919 as a mirror, reflecting society's changing priorities 00:10:49.919 --> 00:10:53.159 back in itself. When a society needs to construct 00:10:53.159 --> 00:10:56.299 global infrastructure, it creates a Regis professor 00:10:56.299 --> 00:10:58.629 of engineering. you just have to wonder about 00:10:58.629 --> 00:11:00.769 the friction in the faculty lounges back then 00:11:00.769 --> 00:11:03.669 oh i'm sure it was intense the traditionalists 00:11:03.669 --> 00:11:06.210 the greek and latin scholars who had held the 00:11:06.210 --> 00:11:09.210 royal ear for three centuries suddenly having 00:11:09.210 --> 00:11:12.649 to share the regis title with mechanics and engineers 00:11:12.649 --> 00:11:15.049 i'm sure there were some very strongly worded 00:11:15.049 --> 00:11:18.049 letters but this slow steady evolution over centuries 00:11:18.049 --> 00:11:20.590 brings us to the modern era where the tradition 00:11:20.590 --> 00:11:23.190 absolutely shattered a complete paradigm shift 00:11:23.190 --> 00:11:25.549 because for hundreds of years there were strict 00:11:25.549 --> 00:11:28.480 unwritten rules about these chairs yes traditionally 00:11:28.480 --> 00:11:31.200 regis chairs only existed in the seven ancient 00:11:31.200 --> 00:11:33.740 universities of the uk and ireland places like 00:11:33.740 --> 00:11:37.240 oxford cambridge aberdeen edinburgh glasgow right 00:11:37.240 --> 00:11:40.740 it was an incredibly closed loop a vip section 00:11:40.740 --> 00:11:44.860 within the vip club but queen elizabeth ii entirely 00:11:44.860 --> 00:11:47.940 changed the game she democratized the prestige 00:11:47.940 --> 00:11:52.259 she really did In October 2012, to mark her diamond 00:11:52.259 --> 00:11:54.539 jubilee, celebrating 60 years on the throne, 00:11:54.740 --> 00:11:56.779 it was announced that the queen would create 00:11:56.779 --> 00:12:00.100 new Regis professorships. And crucially, they 00:12:00.100 --> 00:12:02.139 wouldn't just be restricted to the ancient universities 00:12:02.139 --> 00:12:05.899 anymore. Exactly. In January 2013, the full list 00:12:05.899 --> 00:12:09.559 was announced. 12 new chairs. Creating 12 new 00:12:09.559 --> 00:12:12.100 chairs in January 2013 was likely the largest 00:12:12.100 --> 00:12:14.700 number ever established in one single year. Just 00:12:14.700 --> 00:12:17.419 a massive influx. More were created in that singular 00:12:17.419 --> 00:12:20.120 moment than were created in most entire centuries. 00:12:20.419 --> 00:12:23.240 And it didn't stop there. In July 2015, it was 00:12:23.240 --> 00:12:25.679 announced that even more Regis professorships 00:12:25.679 --> 00:12:28.059 would be created to mark the Queen's 90th birthday, 00:12:28.200 --> 00:12:31.740 which were officially awarded in 2016. This sudden 00:12:31.740 --> 00:12:34.179 explosion of new chairs forces us to look very 00:12:34.179 --> 00:12:36.860 closely at the subjects chosen. Remembering the 00:12:36.860 --> 00:12:39.340 core criteria, these must be disciplines judged 00:12:39.340 --> 00:12:41.879 to be fundamental and for which there is a continuing 00:12:41.879 --> 00:12:44.460 and significant need. So what does this all mean? 00:12:44.600 --> 00:12:46.860 When the Queen and the government looked at the 00:12:46.860 --> 00:12:50.279 landscape of the 21st century in 2013 and 2016, 00:12:50.799 --> 00:12:54.039 what did they deem fundamental? The modern list 00:12:54.039 --> 00:12:55.899 includes computer science at the University of 00:12:55.899 --> 00:12:57.779 Southampton. Right. Electronics and computer 00:12:57.779 --> 00:13:00.080 engineering, which touches on the very foundations 00:13:00.080 --> 00:13:03.259 of cybersecurity at Queen's University Belfast. 00:13:03.419 --> 00:13:07.190 Notice how far we have traveled from 1540. We 00:13:07.190 --> 00:13:09.649 are no longer solely focused on civil law and 00:13:09.649 --> 00:13:12.389 ancient Greek. We are officially elevating the 00:13:12.389 --> 00:13:15.490 architecture of the digital world. Yeah. Cybersecurity 00:13:15.490 --> 00:13:18.110 is the modern equivalent of city walls. That's 00:13:18.110 --> 00:13:19.929 a great way to think about it. And the list gets 00:13:19.929 --> 00:13:22.990 even more specific to our modern anxieties. Meteorology 00:13:22.990 --> 00:13:24.970 and climate science at the University of Reading. 00:13:25.250 --> 00:13:28.289 Open education at the Open University. And at 00:13:28.289 --> 00:13:30.850 Newcastle University, a Regis professor of aging. 00:13:31.149 --> 00:13:33.940 This raises an important question. How rapidly 00:13:33.940 --> 00:13:36.460 have our base survival needs changed as a species? 00:13:36.580 --> 00:13:39.179 Drastic. In 1540, the fundamental medical need 00:13:39.179 --> 00:13:42.320 was physic basic anatomy and a rudimentary understanding 00:13:42.320 --> 00:13:45.679 of disease. Now, the 2016 list includes infectious 00:13:45.679 --> 00:13:48.080 disease at Imperial College London, precision 00:13:48.080 --> 00:13:50.340 medicine at Glasgow, and cancer research at the 00:13:50.340 --> 00:13:53.120 University of London. Newcastle's chair in aging 00:13:53.120 --> 00:13:56.519 is incredibly telling, too. It is. In the 1500s, 00:13:56.519 --> 00:13:59.200 living to an old age was a statistical rarity. 00:13:59.720 --> 00:14:03.179 Today, we have an aging global population, and 00:14:03.179 --> 00:14:05.480 society recognizes that understanding how to 00:14:05.480 --> 00:14:08.139 manage the biology and sociology of aging is 00:14:08.139 --> 00:14:10.720 a fundamental, continuing, and significant need. 00:14:10.899 --> 00:14:13.440 And the inclusion of meteorology in climate science 00:14:13.440 --> 00:14:16.240 is equally profound. It represents an official, 00:14:16.419 --> 00:14:19.059 monarch -endorsed recognition that understanding 00:14:19.059 --> 00:14:21.299 the changing climate is now a fundamental requirement 00:14:21.299 --> 00:14:24.039 for the continuation of society. Yeah. It is 00:14:24.039 --> 00:14:25.659 the modern equivalent of needing to know how 00:14:25.659 --> 00:14:27.799 to build a bridge or understand crop rotation. 00:14:28.220 --> 00:14:30.179 Looking at the whole timeline side by side is 00:14:30.179 --> 00:14:33.899 genuinely jarring. King James III in 1497 stating 00:14:33.899 --> 00:14:36.600 the urgent need to formalize medicine. Queen 00:14:36.600 --> 00:14:39.399 Elizabeth II in 2016 declaring the urgent need 00:14:39.399 --> 00:14:42.019 for experts in climate change, cybersecurity 00:14:42.019 --> 00:14:44.860 and the management of an aging population. It 00:14:44.860 --> 00:14:47.980 is the entire story of humanity's progress written 00:14:47.980 --> 00:14:50.899 in the job titles of a few dozen extremely smart 00:14:50.899 --> 00:14:53.840 people. A Wikipedia list of academic titles essentially 00:14:53.840 --> 00:14:56.500 serving as a living, breathing time capsule. 00:14:56.600 --> 00:15:00.100 It really is. As we wrap up this deep dive, we've 00:15:00.100 --> 00:15:02.460 traveled from the 15th century right up to the 00:15:02.460 --> 00:15:05.220 modern day. We've seen how a title that allows 00:15:05.220 --> 00:15:08.460 an academic to drop the word professor has evolved 00:15:08.460 --> 00:15:11.120 from honoring scholars of Hebrew and ancient 00:15:11.120 --> 00:15:14.159 law to elevating the people trying to cure cancer 00:15:14.159 --> 00:15:17.159 and protect our digital infrastructure. And for 00:15:17.159 --> 00:15:19.799 you, the listener, whether you are prepping for 00:15:19.799 --> 00:15:22.120 a meeting, catching up on your field, or just 00:15:22.120 --> 00:15:25.200 trying to satisfy your own curiosity. It is worth 00:15:25.200 --> 00:15:27.759 remembering that the way you choose to filter 00:15:27.759 --> 00:15:30.120 what is fundamental knowledge in your own life 00:15:30.120 --> 00:15:33.600 is part of this grand human tradition. Absolutely. 00:15:33.639 --> 00:15:35.940 We are all constantly updating our own internal 00:15:35.940 --> 00:15:38.500 list of what is necessary to survive and thrive 00:15:38.500 --> 00:15:41.320 in our current era. We curate our own fundamental 00:15:41.320 --> 00:15:43.860 knowledge every single day. But before we go, 00:15:43.899 --> 00:15:45.779 I want to leave you with one final lingering 00:15:45.779 --> 00:15:48.899 thought to mull over. We analyzed that massive 00:15:48.899 --> 00:15:51.860 explosion of new Regis chairs created between 00:15:51.860 --> 00:15:55.919 2013 and 2016, the ones focusing heavily on climate 00:15:55.919 --> 00:15:59.200 science, aging, cancer and computer engineering. 00:15:59.379 --> 00:16:02.460 Right. Imagine a civilization looking back a 00:16:02.460 --> 00:16:04.500 thousand years from now at that specific cluster 00:16:04.500 --> 00:16:07.179 of titles. Based strictly on the subjects we 00:16:07.179 --> 00:16:09.279 begged a monarch to elevate in those three years, 00:16:09.480 --> 00:16:11.700 what will future historians assume about the 00:16:11.700 --> 00:16:14.100 specific fears, challenges and aspirations that 00:16:14.100 --> 00:16:16.059 kept our generation awake at night? It's a heavy 00:16:16.059 --> 00:16:18.080 thought. It makes you wonder what the very next 00:16:18.080 --> 00:16:20.679 newly minted Regis chair will be. Thank you so 00:16:20.679 --> 00:16:23.340 much for joining us on this deep dive. Keep questioning 00:16:23.340 --> 00:16:25.320 the world around you and keep seeking out those 00:16:25.320 --> 00:16:25.919 aha moments.