LOVERING, Joseph, physicist, born in Charles-town (now a part of Boston), Massachusetts. 25 December, 1813. He was graduated at Harvard in 1833, and after teaching for a year in Charlestown spent two years in Harvard divinity-school. In 1836 he was appointed tutor in mathematics and physics in Harvard, and two years later was made Hollis professor of mathematics and natural philosophy, which chair he still (1887) retains, becoming also in 1884 director of the Jefferson physical laboratory. In addition to his college work, he has given nine courses, each of twelve lectures, on astronomy or physics before the Lowell institute of Boston. Five of these courses were repeated, on the days following those of their first delivery, to another audience, according to the original practice of that institution. He has delivered shorter courses of lectures at the Smithsonian institution, the Peabody institute of Baltimore, and the Charitable mechanics' institution of Boston, and one or more lectures in many towns and cities of New England. During 1867-'76 he was connected with the United States coast survey, and had charge of the computations for determining trans-Atlantic longitudes from telegraphic observations on cable lines. Professor Lovering received the degree of LL. D. from Harvard in 1879, and was regent of that college in 1853-'4 and in 1857-'70, an office now merged into that of dean. He is a member of the American philosophical society and of the National academy of sciences. During 1854-'73 he was permanent secretary of the American association for the advancement of science, and edited fifteen volumes of its proceedings, becoming in 1873 its president. In 1839 he was elected a member of the American academy of arts and sciences, and he was its corresponding secretary in 1869-'7& its vice-president in 1873-'80, and president in 1880-'7. Professor Lovering has been an indefatigable contributor of scientific articles to contemporary literature, and, in addition to special memoirs on the aurora, terrestrial magnetism, and the determination of trans-Atlantic longitude, which were published by the American academy, he has prepared a volume on the "Aurora Borealis" (Boston, 1873), and edited a new edition of Farrar's "Electricity and Magnetism" (1842).