George Edward Briggs, 25 June 1893 - 7 February 1985

Abstract

For George Edward Briggs, ‘plant physiology was plant biology with special emphasis on the mechanism of the change going on in the organism, or, if you like, how it works’. In his hands it became a precise study: the ‘special aspect of plant physiology to which I have devoted most of my time and energy both in teaching and research. For want of a better term I will call this aspect the quantitative approach’. In his plant physiological research and teaching he showed how ‘the effort to make a mathematical formulation makes for precision in thinking’*. At a time when plant biology had hardly emerged from the descriptive, qualitative phase, Briggs was to have a profound effect on his subject, both through his publications and through the generations of students he trained in Cambridge. He possessed one of the finest analytical minds among biologists of his generation, world wide. He also had an unusual personality, which left deep impressions on all who knew him. This memoir attempts to describe Briggs, the scientist, and remarkable man.