Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society
DisciplineBiography
LanguageEnglish
Edited byMalcolm Longair
Publication details
Former name(s)
Obituary Notices of Fellows of the Royal Society
History1932–present
Publisher
Royal Society (United Kingdom)
FrequencyBiannually
Free to access
Standard abbreviations
ISO 4Biogr. Mem. Fellows R. Soc.
Indexing
ISSN0080-4606 (print)
1748-8494 (web)
LCCN56026605
JSTOR00804606
Links

The Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society is an academic journal on the history of science published annually by the Royal Society. It publishes obituaries of Fellows of the Royal Society. It was established in 1932 as Obituary Notices of Fellows of the Royal Society and obtained its current title in 1955, with volume numbering restarting at 1. Prior to 1932, obituaries were published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society.

The memoirs are a significant historical record and most include a full bibliography of works by the subjects. The memoirs are often written by a scientist of the next generation, often one of the subject's own former students, or a close colleague. In many cases the author is also a Fellow. Notable biographies published in this journal include Albert Einstein,[1] Alan Turing,[2] Bertrand Russell,[3] Claude Shannon,[4] Clement Attlee,[5] Ernst Mayr,[6] and Erwin Schrödinger.[7]

Each year, around 40 to 50 memoirs of deceased Fellows of the Royal Society are collated by the Editor-in-Chief, currently Malcolm Longair, who succeeded Trevor Stuart in 2016. All contents are freely available to read.

References

  1. ^ Whittaker, E. (1955). "Albert Einstein. 1879–1955". Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society. 1: 37–67. doi:10.1098/rsbm.1955.0005. S2CID 619823.
  2. ^ Newman, M. H. A. (1955). "Alan Mathison Turing. 1912–1954". Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society. 1: 253–263. doi:10.1098/rsbm.1955.0019.
  3. ^ Kreisel, G. (1973). "Bertrand Arthur William Russell, Earl Russell. 1872–1970". Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society. 19: 583–620. doi:10.1098/rsbm.1973.0021.
  4. ^ James, I. (2009). "Claude Elwood Shannon 30 April 1916 -- 24 February 2001". Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society. 55: 257–265. doi:10.1098/rsbm.2009.0015.
  5. ^ Bridges, L. (1968). "Clement Richard Attlee First Earl Attlee. 1883–1967". Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society. 14: 15–36. doi:10.1098/rsbm.1968.0002.
  6. ^ Bock, W. J. (2006). "Ernst Walter Mayr. 5 July 1904 -- 3 February 2005: Elected ForMemRS 1988". Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society. 52: 167–187. doi:10.1098/rsbm.2006.0013.
  7. ^ Heitler, W. (1961). "Erwin Schrodinger. 1887–1961". Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society. 7: 221–228. doi:10.1098/rsbm.1961.0017.


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