The Simonyi Professorship for the Public Understanding of Science is a chair at the University of Oxford. The chair was established in 1995 for the ethologist Richard Dawkins by an endowment from Charles Simonyi.[1][2] The aim of the Professorship is 'to communicate science to the public without, in doing so, losing those elements of scholarship which constitute the essence of true understanding'. It is a position that had been endowed by Charles Simonyi with the express intention that the holder "be expected to make important contributions to the public understanding of some scientific field",[3] and that its first holder should be Richard Dawkins.[4]

History

[...] if I am asked for a single phrase to characterize my role as Professor of the Public Understanding of Science, I think I would claim Advocate for Disinterested Truth.

— Richard Dawkins, A Devil's Chaplain[5]

Richard Dawkins explained the history of the creation of the chair in a chapter of his memoirs, Brief Candle in the Dark: My Life in Science.[2] In 2008, Dawkins retired and the Oxford mathematician Marcus du Sautoy was elected to the chair.[6][7]

List of Simonyi Professors

List of Simonyi Lectures

Richard Dawkins established an annual "Charles Simonyi Lecture" at the University of Oxford. He invited the following speakers:[8][9]

Marcus du Sautoy, second Simonyi Professor, invited:[9]

Notes and references

  1. ^ Charles Simonyi's manifesto Archived 5 February 2016 at the Wayback Machine, University of Oxford (page visited on 6 December 2015).
  2. ^ a b Richard Dawkins, Brief Candle in the Dark: My Life in Science, Bantam Press, 2015 (ISBN 978-0-59307-256-1). Chapter "Simonyi Professor", pages 271-307.
  3. ^ Simonyi, Charles (15 May 1995). "Manifesto for the Simonyi Professorship". The University of Oxford. Archived from the original on 23 April 2008. Retrieved 13 March 2008.
  4. ^ "Aims of the Simonyi Professorship". 23 April 2008. Archived from the original on 23 April 2008. Retrieved 28 June 2011.
  5. ^ Richard Dawkins, "Science, Genetics and Ethics: Memo for Tony Blair", A Devil's Chaplain, Phoenix, 2003, page 43 (ISBN 978-0-7538-1750-6).
  6. ^ "The Current Simonyi Professor: Richard Dawkins". The University of Oxford. Archived from the original on 26 May 2010. Retrieved 13 March 2008.
  7. ^ Richard Dawkins. "Charles Simonyi Professorship in the Public Understanding of Science". RichardDawkins.net. Retrieved 29 March 2008.
  8. ^ Richard Dawkins, Brief Candle in the Dark: My Life in Science, Bantam Press, 2015, page 282 (ISBN 978-0-59307-256-1).
  9. ^ a b The Simonyi Lectures, University of Oxford (page visited on 6 December 2015).

Bibliography

External links

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