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Abstract

DR. G. D. LIVEING, who reaches his ninety-sixth birthday on Friday, December 21, may be assured that, in addition to the many personal friends who offer him congratulations on the maintenance of activity and intellectual interest at so great an age, chemists and other men of science, not only in Great Britain but also abroad, think of him with affection and esteem. He has had a remarkable life, and his contributions to scientific knowledge will long remain a permanent testimony to his care in experiment and caution in conclusion. Dr. Liveing went to St. John's College, Cambridge, was eleventh Wrangler in 1850, and in the following year was placed at the top of Class I. in the newly instituted Natural Sciences Tripos. He was elected to a fellowship at St. John's College in 1853, and became professor of chemistry in the University in 1861, a post which he filled until 1908. His name will always be associated with the growth and development of the Chemical Laboratories of the University. In 1879, Dr. Liveing was elected a fellow of the Royal Society, of which he was vice - president for two periods, 1891–2 and 1903–4. He was awarded the Davy medal in 1901 for his contributions to spectroscopy, and in making the presentation, the president of the Royal Society referred to Liveing's work as “one of the most valuable contributions to this department of chemical physics yet made by British workers.” The work on spectroscopy was given to the world in numerous papers in the Proceedings of the Royal Society and the Cambridge Philosophical Society, and was brought together in 1915, in collaboration with the late Sir James Dewar, under the title “Collected Papers on Spectroscopy.” Dr. Liveing holds the unique distinction of having been in residence at Cambridge for more than seventy-five years in unbroken succession, and his figure is probably well known to most living members of the University.