The University of Edinburgh, founded in 1583, played a leading role in defining Edinburgh as a major intellectual centre during the Age of Enlightenment. Graduates include the naturalist Charles Darwin, physicist James Clerk Maxwell, philosopher David Hume, economist Adam Smith, surgeon and pioneer of sterilization Joseph Lister, signatories of the American declaration of independence John Witherspoon and Benjamin Rush, inventor Alexander Graham Bell, the first president of Tanzania Julius Nyerere, former United Kingdom Prime Minister Gordon Brown, and authors from Sir Walter Scott to JK Rowling.
