Robert Cecil Olby (4 October 1933 – 31 December 2020) was a British research professor in the Department of

History and Philosophy of Science The history and philosophy of science (HPS) is an academic discipline that encompasses the philosophy of science and the history of science. Although many scholars in the field are trained primarily as either historians or as philosophers, there ...

at the

University of Pittsburgh The University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) is a Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. The university is composed of seventeen undergraduate and graduate schools and colle ...

. Formerly Reader at the

University of Leeds The University of Leeds is a public research university in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It was established in 1874 as the Yorkshire College of Science. In 1884, it merged with the Leeds School of Medicine (established 1831) and was renamed Y ...

, UK, Robert Olby was a historian of 19th and 20th century biology, his specialist fields being

genetics Genetics is the study of genes, genetic variation, and heredity in organisms.Hartl D, Jones E (2005) It is an important branch in biology because heredity is vital to organisms' evolution. Gregor Mendel, a Moravian Augustinians, Augustinian ...

and

molecular biology Molecular biology is a branch of biology that seeks to understand the molecule, molecular basis of biological activity in and between Cell (biology), cells, including biomolecule, biomolecular synthesis, modification, mechanisms, and interactio ...

. With the assistance of Martin Packer, Olby completed an authorized biography of the late

Francis Crick Francis Harry Compton Crick (8 June 1916 – 28 July 2004) was an English molecular biologist, biophysicist, and neuroscientist. He, James Watson, Rosalind Franklin, and Maurice Wilkins played crucial roles in deciphering the Nucleic acid doub ...

. It is entitled ''Francis Crick: Hunter of Life's Secrets'', after an article in

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

on February 2, 1962. Olby was born in

Beckenham Beckenham () is a town in Greater London, England, within the London Borough of Bromley. Prior to 1965, it was part of Kent. It is situated north of Elmers End and Eden Park, east of Penge, south of Lower Sydenham and Bellingham, and west ...

on October 4, 1933, and died in Willow Spring, North Carolina on 31 December 2020, at the age of 87.

Books and papers by Robert Olby

* ''Charles Darwin'';

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the publishing house of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world. Its first book was printed in Oxford in 1478, with the Press officially granted the legal right to print books ...

, London, 1967, 64pp. * ''Early Nineteenth Century European Scientists'';

Pergamon Press Pergamon Press was an Oxford-based publishing house, founded by Paul Rosbaud and Robert Maxwell, that published scientific and medical books and journals. Originally called Butterworth-Springer, it is now an imprint of Elsevier. History The c ...

, 1967, 179pp. *''The Origins of Mendelism''; Constable 1966. 204 pages * The Twentieth Century Sciences, ''Studies in the Biography of Ideas'', edited by

Gerald Holton Gerald James Holton (born May 23, 1922) is a German-born American physicist, historian of science, and educator, whose professional interests also include philosophy of science and the fostering of careers of young men and women. He is Mallinck ...

; W.W. Norton & Co., New York 1972: article "Francis Crick, DNA, and the Central Dogma". * ' Rosalind Elsie Franklin' biography in ''Dictionary of Scientific Biography'', ed. Charles C. Gillespie (New York:

Charles Scribner's Sons Charles Scribner's Sons, or simply Scribner's or Scribner, is an American publisher based in New York City that has published several notable American authors, including Henry James, Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Kurt Vonnegut, Marjori ...

) *''The Path to the Double Helix: The Discovery of DNA'';

University of Washington Press The University of Washington Press is an American academic publishing house. The organization is a division of the University of Washington, based in Seattle. Although the division functions autonomously, it has worked to assist the university' ...

, Seattle 1974 & revised 1994) * ''Companion to the History of Modern Science'' (ed.);

Routledge Routledge ( ) is a British multinational corporation, multinational publisher. It was founded in 1836 by George Routledge, and specialises in providing academic books, academic journals, journals and online resources in the fields of the humanit ...

, London, 1990, 1081pp. * "Robert Darlington: Forgotten Prophet of Genetics", ''

American Scientist ''American Scientist'' (informally abbreviated ''AmSci'') is an American bimonthly science and technology magazine published since 1913 by Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Honor Society. In the beginning of 2000s the headquarters was moved to ...

'' Nov-Dec 2004
"Quiet debut for the double helix"
''

Nature Nature is an inherent character or constitution, particularly of the Ecosphere (planetary), ecosphere or the universe as a whole. In this general sense nature refers to the Scientific law, laws, elements and phenomenon, phenomena of the physic ...

'' 421 (January 23, 2003): 402–405. *''

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from History of the British Isles, British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') ...

'':‘ Huxley, Sir Julian Sorell (1887–1975)’, first published Sept 2004, 2680 words *''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'': ‘Bernal, (John) Desmond (1901–1971)’, first published Sept 2004, 2870 words, with portrait illustration * "Francis Crick: Hunter of Life's Secrets",

Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) is a private, non-profit institution with research programs focusing on cancer, neuroscience, botany, genomics, and quantitative biology. It is located in Laurel Hollow, New York, in Nassau County, on ...

Press, , published 25 August 2009; 450 pp

and Peter Lawrence's review in "Current Biology

*'Crick, Francis Harry Compton (1916–2004)', ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', ''online'' ''edn'', Oxford University Press, Jan. 2008 *'Perutz, Max Ferdinand (1914-2002)', ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', ''online edn'', Oxford University Press, Jan. 2008 *'

Wilkins, Maurice Hugh Frederick Maurice Hugh Frederick Wilkins (15 December 1916 – 5 October 2004) was a New Zealand-born British people, British biophysicist and Nobel laureate whose research spanned multiple areas of physics and biophysics, contributing to the scientific ...

(1916-2004)', ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', ''online'' ''edn'', Oxford University Press, Jan. 2008

References

External links

*
His Australian lecture, March 2010

from the

Oregon State University Oregon State University (OSU) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Corvallis, Oregon, United States. OSU offers more than 200 undergraduate degree programs and a variety of graduate and doctor ...

web site.
For Martin Packer's web site: Remembering Francis Crick.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Olby, Robert 1933 births 2020 deaths Academics of the University of Leeds British historians of science

Books and papers by Robert Olby

See also

References

External links