You have accessMoreSectionsView PDF ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack Citations ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditEmail Cite this article Longair Malcolm S. 2023EditorialBiogr. Mems Fell. R. Soc.741–8http://doi.org/10.1098/rsbm.2023.0006SectionYou have accessEditorialEditorial Malcolm S. Longair Malcolm S. Longair [email protected] Google Scholar Find this author on PubMed Search for more papers by this author Malcolm S. Longair Malcolm S. Longair [email protected] Google Scholar Find this author on PubMed Search for more papers by this author Published:01 April 2023https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbm.2023.0006WelcomeWelcome to volume 74 of Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society, the first of two volumes to appear in 2023. This edition contains further outstanding memoirs spanning a wide range of the disciplines pursued by Fellows of the Society. Major prize winners include Alan MacDiarmid (Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2000) and Alan Baker (Fields Medal 1970). There are memoirs of two female Fellows, Dame Anne McLaren and Naomi Datta. Notably, Anne McLaren was also the first woman Foreign Secretary of the Society. Knighthoods were also bestowed upon Sir Ian McGregor, Sir Alastair Pilkington and Sir Dai Rees. There is one Foreign Member of the Society, John Casida. There is also a memoir of Margaret Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher of Kesteven, who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990, the first woman British prime minister and the first scientist to hold the post.How well are we doing?As readers will be aware, one of our challenges has been to ensure that the list of memoirs is as complete as possible. With the publication of the memoirs of Thaddeus Mann and Alistair Pilkington, we have now completed the coverage of memoirs up to those who died in 2000. We are most grateful to the authors of these memoirs in particular for their efforts in providing fitting tributes to these Fellows—it is a non-trivial task to provide memoirs for Fellows who died so long ago. Many of those who knew them well are also no longer with us. We are now steadily reducing the backlog of memoirs for those who died in the period 2000 to 2010 thanks to the generous help of those we have commissioned to write these memoirs.Interdisciplinary research—‘been there, done that!’It always surprises me that such a big deal is made of the benefits of interdisciplinary research. Fellows of the Royal Society have been at it since the very beginning of the Royal Society—think of Wren, Newton, Pepys, and many others. Newton was notoriously interdisciplinary, leaving as voluminous writings on alchemy (in fact, chemistry), and the scriptures and their interpretation, as on physics and mathematics. James Clerk Maxwell worked in all areas of physics—Maxwell's equations, the stability of Saturn's rings, the kinetic theory of gases, the theory of colour vision, the stability of control systems, mathematical figures, thermodynamics, measurements of fundamental constants of physics—and was a brilliant mathematician, deploying these tools apparently effortlessly in his research.In this edition of Biographical Memoirs, there are very few scientists who did not adopt interdisciplinary approaches, many of which were crucial to the success of their science. Richard Hills, for example, needed a deep understanding of engineering and material science in his construction of innovative large millimetre telescopes. How can one disentangle Weiss's contributions to astronomy, applied mathematics and computational science? The distinctions become even more marginal in the overlaps between the areas of biochemistry, health sciences and neuroscience, and genetics and developmental biology. And then there are the polymaths, a brilliant example being the geologist John Ramsay, ‘the finest structural geologist of his generation, with superb field mapping skills and a solid grasp of mathematics and engineering. He was also accomplished as a cellist, painter in oils, runner, cyclist, linguist, poet, cook, skier and rock climber’.Looking at recently published memoirs, equally astonishing is the range of subjects described in the memoir of Freeman Dyson in volume 73 of Biographical Memoirs. As was written in his memoir, he ‘made fundamental contributions to five fields of mathematics and eleven fields of physics, as well as to theoretical biology, engineering, operations research, literature, and public affairs’. My personal favourite is the Memoir of Colin Pennycuick in volume 72. The opening words of the summary say it all: ‘Colin Pennycuick was almost single-handedly responsible for the successful, and continuing, merger of the engineering and mathematical sciences of aerodynamics and flight mechanics with ornithology, ecology and bird flight behaviour.’ His enthusiasms are brought out in the splendid series of photographs of Colin on a ‘steep cliff’, ‘in his element’ in his glider following the birds, and the charming picture of a sooty albatross enjoying a lift in his rucksack.In my view, these interdisciplinary ventures work best when they spring up spontaneously out of curiosity and work most successfully if one has established a strong reputation in one's home field of interest. Nonetheless, students should be encouraged to grasp these opportunities so long as it does not jeopardize their career prospects. I strongly welcome the encouragement to adopt interdisciplinary approaches, but we have to recognize that scientists have been doing it spontaneously for a very long time.Biographical Memoirs volume 74There are twenty-three memoirs in this, the first 2023 volume of Biographical Memoirs. The following notes are intended to act as a guide to the different disciplines represented, with brief summaries of the scientific achievements of the Fellows, largely taken from the memoirs’ summaries. These, and previous volumes, can be freely accessed on the Royal Society's website.Astronomy and physicsRichard Hills was a pioneering, world-leading millimetre astronomer. With Michael Janssen, he built the world's first millimetre interferometer. Highlights of his contributions include his key roles as project scientist for the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope in Hawaii, still the world's largest single dish for submillimetre astronomy, and for the ALMA millimetre/submillimetre array in Chile. His career spanned the evolution of millimetre astronomy from the ‘Wild West’ of the 1960s to the sophisticated aperture synthesis ALMA array which is revolutionizing our understanding of star and planet formation and the astrophysics of the distant Universe of galaxies.James Watson was a world-leading authority on the basic theory of molecular rotation and vibration, especially renowned for his simplification of rotational and rotation–vibrational Hamiltonians. Other significant scientific achievements include the treatment of ‘forbidden’ rotational transitions in symmetric molecules and analysis of the spectrum of the H3+ molecular ion, both of which have important astrophysical applications. Although his most profound contributions were highly mathematical, he always endeavoured to present the ultimate results in a widely useful form.Nigel Weiss was an astrophysicist and applied mathematician, who made a number of important contributions to the study of sunspots, where he produced a detailed model of their complex structures. He also made important contributions to the theory of the solar 22-year magnetic cycle, using pioneering numerical modelling and drawing attention to the dynamical effects of symmetry breaking and of historic proxy data through observations of radioactive isotopes in tree rings and ice cores. A major part of his work was the numerical and theoretical investigation of many aspects of the interaction of magnetic fields with thermal convection in the Sun and stars. He combined great physical insight with expertise in numerical computation, nonlinear dynamics, and bifurcation theory.BiochemistryHerbert (Freddie) Gutfreund made fundamental contributions to molecular enzymology, a name he introduced as a discipline within the field of biochemistry. His experiences in Cambridge remained a major influence throughout his later career. He spent a short period at the National Institute for Research in Dairying, followed by the major part of his career at Bristol University, where he founded the Molecular Enzymology Laboratory within the Department of Biochemistry. He developed and encouraged a school of physical biochemistry built especially around the field of transient kinetics of enzyme-catalysed reactions.Thaddeus Mann made important discoveries in male reproductive biology and semen analysis. He provided much of the basic knowledge on the composition and origin of semen components in farm animals relevant to storage of spermatozoa for artificial insemination and assessment of fertility. He identified a copper-binding protein (designated haemocuprein) that was later shown to be superoxide dismutase, which helps protect cells from the damaging effects of oxygen free radicals. Two outstanding textbooks, published in 1954 and 1964, collated all the information on the biochemistry of mammalian spermatozoa and became the authoritative reference sources worldwide.Sir David (Dai) Rees was a carbohydrate chemist, who made major contributions to understanding of the structure and function of naturally occurring polysaccharides. He was the first to identify the self-association of polysaccharides from red algae such as agarose and the carrageenans into ordered double-helical structures. This understanding was of interest to carbohydrate chemists and the industries where these materials are widely used, such as foods and pharmaceuticals. He became director of the National Institute for Medical Research in 1982, and from 1987 to 1996 was the chief executive of the Medical Research Council.Frederick (Bob) Whatley was a plant biochemist who made fundamental discoveries that form the basis of our present understanding of photosynthesis. He brought biochemical expertise and insight to a small team under Daniel Arnon at the University of California at Berkeley, which, in the decade from 1953, discovered that chloroplasts were capable of conserving light energy as adenosine triphosphate by photosynthetic phosphorylation. They also defined the role of the enzyme cofactor NADP + . By demonstrating that isolated chloroplasts were capable of the complete process of light-driven carbon dioxide fixation, they revolutionized the contemporary conception of the process. In the 1960s Bob contributed to identifying the important role of the key protein, ferredoxin, in photosynthesis.Engineering and materials scienceAnthony Evans was one of the leading scientists of his generation in the field of materials. He had no rival when it came to the understanding of the underlying fundamentals of material behaviour, coupled with an extraordinary ability to focus his attention and to inspire and lead collaborative efforts. Subjects to which he made major contributions include the exploration of virtually all aspects of the thermo-mechanical behaviour of advanced ceramics, ceramic matrix and metal matrix composites, thin film mechanics, interface fracture, thermal barrier coatings, metallic foams, morphing structures, aerospace materials for high temperature applications, lightweight lattice materials, and the design of materials and structures for resistance to blast and ballistic impact.Martin Fleischmann was an electrochemist whose work revolutionized the subject. He was a consummate mathematician and inspired inventor of new experimental methods. His work led to the development of several important techniques: ground-breaking studies of electrocrystallization stemming from the development of high-speed potentiostats; the discovery of the surface-enhanced Raman effect; the development of microelectrodes; the study of stochastic effects as a means to derive basic information about electrochemical reactions; and the systematic development of concepts of electrochemical engineering. His name is indelibly associated with the ‘cold fusion’ episode that took place at the end of his career in the late 1980s. He is remembered with esteem and affection by his many colleagues, leaving a major legacy in electrochemistry.Alan MacDiarmid was an inorganic chemist who pioneered the field of synthetic metals. He was appointed to an academic position at the University of Pennsylvania, where he became interested in poly(sulfur nitride) which led to a search with Alan Heeger for intrinsically conducting non-metallic materials. A chance meeting with Hideki Shirakawa at the University of Tokyo led to MacDiarmid being shown thin metallic-like films of poly(acetylene) made in Shirakawa's laboratory. This led to the birth of the field of synthetic metals, and to the award of the 2000 Nobel Prize in Chemistry to Alan, Heeger, and Shirakawa. From this research, the new field of organic electronic materials emerged.Sir Lionel (Alastair) Pilkington spent his whole working career in the glass industry, initiating and leading development of the revolutionary float process, which involves floating molten glass on molten tin. This novel glassmaking venture emerged in the small town of St Helens, where the Pilkington Company, founded in 1826, had the resources to see the project through to a successful conclusion, solving a huge number of complex technological problems and investing substantial funds. Almost all the glass one sees today, in myriads of applications worldwide, owes its optically perfect surfaces to the float process.Genetics and developmental biologyBryan Clarke was a world-leading evolutionary geneticist. He combined theoretical understanding of the principles of evolutionary biology, an appreciation of the process of molecular evolution, and a love of fieldwork, through which he studied the genetic diversity of wild populations and the patterns of natural selection that operated on them. His primary interest was in studying evolution in the wild. His focus was on genetic polymorphisms, in which different genetic types coexist in the same wild population. In understanding how such variation is generated, and how it is maintained, insight was gained into the process of evolution as it has operated over the course of life on Earth.Dame Anne McLaren was among the pioneers of research into mammalian development. Her experiments on embryonic and fetal development in mice led indirectly to ‘test tube’ babies and contributed to our understanding of the relative roles of soma and germ cells in generating the two sexes. She was a formidable member of the Warnock Committee, which created the internationally influential guidelines on how human-assisted reproduction should be regulated, and for 10 years served with distinction on the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, the UK regulatory body. Her interests extended to conservation and biodiversity preservation programmes internationally. She was a founder member of the Association of Women in Science and Engineering. She was elected Foreign Secretary of the Royal Society, the first woman to hold this office in its 330 years.GeologyJohn Ramsay was the finest structural geologist of his generation, with superb field mapping skills and a solid grasp of mathematics and engineering. He was also accomplished as a cellist, painter in oils, runner, cyclist, linguist, poet, cook, skier and rock climber. He was a gifted scientist and aesthete who saw beauty in the natural world and sought it in all his work. His fundamental contributions, in 94 papers and four books, modernized structural geology, enabling us to understand the deformation of rocks in completely new ways.Richard West was undoubtedly the greatest British Quaternary geologist of his generation. His detailed investigations at Hoxne and Ipswich led to a lifetime unravelling the environmental, geological and vegetational history of Quaternary deposits in Britain, particularly in East Anglia. In the course of this work, he was responsible for recognizing and defining the majority of the cold or glacial and interglacial stages into which the Quaternary Period in Britain is subdivided. His expertise extended from pollen and plant macrofossil analysis to physical geological evidence, glacial deposits, periglacial phenomena, and sea-level change.Health sciences and neuroscienceHugh (John) Cairns pursued a variety of research problems: virology with Macfarlane Burnet (FRS 1942) in Melbourne, Australia; molecular biology at CalTech; and Escherichia coli studies at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL). In the 1970s he turned his attention to understanding cancer and moved to the Mill Hill Laboratories in North London where he fostered multidisciplinary research. He recruited scientists who used model organisms such as bacteria, fruit flies, slime moulds, amphibians, and mice as models to explore the determinants of cell fate during development. Subsequently, as professor of cancer biology at the Harvard School of Public Health, he discovered what is now known as stress-induced mutagenesis.John Casida’s research in pesticide toxicology led to more effective agricultural chemicals that are far safer for human and environmental health. He used pesticides as probes for his fundamental studies of metabolism and mode of action, resulting in great insight into biological chemistry and the underlying mechanisms of regulatory biology, ranging from voltage-gated sodium channels, through the ryanodine receptor and calcium regulation, the gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA)-gated chloride channel, to the nicotinic acetylcholine receptors.Naomi Datta was distinguished for her discovery of bacterial plasmids carrying genes giving resistance to antibiotics. At the Royal Postgraduate Medical School, she studied an outbreak of salmonella at Hammersmith Hospital in 1959. She discovered genetic factors responsible for transfer of resistance between strains. At the adjacent Medical Research Council Unit, she and her colleagues found that transfer was due to small replicating loops of DNA, later called plasmids. Molecular analysis of plasmids revealed that drug resistance genes were carried on small vectors called transposons, which could transfer themselves between plasmids and bacterial chromosomes. This facilitated gene mapping and later gene cloning and genetic engineering, which became highly controversial.Raymond (Mike) Gaze devoted his career to understanding how nerves form precise connections. His experiments focused on the nerves connecting the eye to the brain in frogs and fish. He pioneered the use of electrophysiological recording in investigating how the nervous system develops, enabling him a greater degree of anatomical precision than had previously been possible. He found that, during normal development, retinal fibres are continually changing their connections. This radical finding implied that retinal fibres interact with each other in forming tectal connections. In the 30 years since he retired, much work on the molecular bases underlying nerve connections has confirmed his original findings and ideas.Sir Ian McGregor was eminent in the field of tropical medicine, his pioneering work contributing notably to understanding the immunology of malaria and the long-term effects of malnutrition. His special interest was community health in The Gambia, West Africa, where his fieldwork in West Kiang was remarkable for its meticulous long-term studies of a defined population. Ian built up the Medical Research Council's laboratories and staff accommodation in The Gambia from a run-down military hospital at Fajara to an important research centre, and served as Director from 1954 to 1974 and from 1978 to 1980.Mathematics and mathematical physicsAlan Baker single-handedly transformed several areas of number theory. He achieved a major breakthrough in transcendence and applied it to obtain a new and important large class of transcendental numbers, opening the way to the subsequent discovery of several other such classes. In 1970 he was awarded the Fields Medal for his outstanding work on linear forms in logarithms and its consequences.John (Ian) Cassels was a distinguished number theorist, who was Sadleirian Professor in Cambridge from 1967 to 1984. He worked in many areas of the subject. Perhaps his greatest contribution concerned elliptic curves, much of which is described in a series of eight ground-breaking papers. He also made significant contributions to Diophantine approximation, geometry of numbers and quadratic forms, as well as writing influential textbooks on all of these areas. He was an early exponent of the use of computers as an experimental tool in number theory.PoliticsMargaret Thatcher was a politician of global stature in the late twentieth century. She studied chemistry at Oxford University during World War II and worked as an industrial scientist in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Entering Parliament in 1959, she served as Secretary of State for Education and Science under Edward Heath in the early 1970s. In 1979 she became not only the UK's first female Prime Minister but also the first with a scientific background. She oversaw significant changes in science policy and her administration faced many major political issues that depended on scientific advice, notably the AIDS crisis, biomedical uses of human embryos, decisions over civil and military nuclear projects, acid rain, and climate change.AcknowledgementsMany thanks once again to the authors of the memoirs for their outstanding work in writing biographies of lasting value. These authoritative memoirs are full of interest and pleasure for the insight they provide into the lives and works of a number of outstanding scientists. I am also personally indebted to the Editorial and Production teams at the Royal Society, whose names and roles are listed on the title page. Special thanks to Callum Shoosmith are in order for his excellent work in standing in for Helen Eaton while she was on leave during the final preparations for this volume. The team's outstanding efforts have enabled us to continue the enhanced rate of publication of the memoirs while maintaining the excellence of their content and high production values. It is also a pleasure to acknowledge the efforts of the Editorial Board, who have, as always, been very helpful indeed in supporting the increased activity by suggesting memoir writers, helping with refereeing, and keeping a sharp eye on all aspects of the evolution of Biographical Memoirs.Author profileMalcolm S. Longair CBE FRS FRSEMalcolm S. Longair is Jacksonian Professor Emeritus of Natural Philosophy and Director of Development, Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge. He was appointed the ninth Astronomer Royal of Scotland in 1980, as well as Regius Professor of Astronomy, University of Edinburgh, and the director of the Royal Observatory, Edinburgh. He was head of the Cavendish Laboratory from 1997 to 2005. He has served on and chaired many international committees, boards and panels, working with both NASA and ESA. His main research interests are in high energy astrophysics, astrophysical cosmology and the history of physics and astrophysics. The third edition of his book, Theoretical concepts in physics, was published in 2020. He has just completed writing the third edition of his book Galaxy formation. He has continued to enhance the online digital archive of historic photographs illustrating the history of the Cavendish Laboratory. A major task is preparing for the move of the Cavendish Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments to the new Cavendish Laboratory in 2023.Footnotes© 2023 The Author(s)Published by the Royal Society Next Article VIEW FULL TEXT DOWNLOAD PDF FiguresRelatedReferencesDetails This IssueApril 2023Volume 74 Article InformationDOI:https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbm.2023.0006Published by:Royal SocietyPrint ISSN:0080-4606Online ISSN:1748-8494History: Published online05/04/2023Published in print01/04/2023 License:© 2023 The Author(s)Published by the Royal Society Citations and impact
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