Born on July 27, 1801 in Alnwick, Northumberland, England, Sir George Biddell Airy came off as a snob young man and yet a very versatile scientist. He did everything from reorganizing the Royal Greenwich Observatory, installing new apparatus including the telescope that defines the Greenwich Meridian. He also improved the theory of the orbital motions of Venus and the moon just to name a few of his performed tasks. He also liked poetry, history, theology, antiquities, architecture, engineering, and geology. He published many papers on religious matters. As you can see, Mr. Airy was very versatile with his interests.
In 1819 George Airy became the Sizar of the Trinity College in Cambridge, England. Later on in 1823 he was the senior wrangler (top first class student) and first Smith's Prizeman. Later that year Airy worked as an assistant tutor in mathematics. He published his work on Mathematical Tracts on Physical Astronomy in 1826. He was elected Professor of Astronomy and Director of the Cambridge observatory in 1826. During the years up until 1835 he became a member of Astronomical society, a member of Geological society, appointed chairman of the commission set up to construct standard weights and measures. In 1835 he was appointed as the seventh astronomer Royal. The next year he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) and equipped royal Observatory. He created magnetic and meteorological department at Greenwich. In 1844 he was awarded Doctorate of Oxford University. Two years later in 1846 he got the Gold medallist Royal Astronomical Society. Still in 1846, the discovery of Neptune and contributions of Adams, Challis and Airy were published. In 1848 he invented photographic registration. .
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He built the "Transit Circle" telescope in the Greenwich Observatory's Meridian Building. He was elected President of the British Association in 1851 and also invented transits timed by electricity by 1854.