Robert Olby

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Robert Cecil Olby (born in 1933) is a research professor in the Department of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Pittsburgh. Formerly at the University of Leeds, UK, Robert Olby is known as a historian of nineteenth and twentieth century biology, his special fields being genetics and molecular biology. He is very well known for his work on the history of biology (see list of works at his webpage). He is fairly well known outside of biology, having frequently been asked to participate in various commemorations of famous scientific events (example) and to comment on science topics for the mass media (example).

He has completed a scientific biography of the late Francis Crick, co-discoverer with James D. Watson of the structure of DNA in 1953 for publication by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press in December 2008, with support from the National Science Foundation and the award of an Archives Fellowship at Churchill College, Cambridge. The new biography has 20 chapters and is 450 pages long, its publication before Crick's death in 2004 was not allowed by Crick; at almost 166,000 words the new book will be the definitive biography of Francis Crick.

His major contribution to the history of molecular biology is well documented in The History of the University of Cambridge: Volume 4 (1870 to 1990) published by CUP in 1992, by direct reference to his The Path to the Double Helix: The Discovery of DNA, first published in 1974, and revised and republished in 1994. His Francis Crick biography will be the pinnacle of a long career in scientific writing during which he has interviewed many leading British and American scientists including Bernal, Brenner, Crick, Huxley, Klug, Perutz, Watson and Wilkins.


[edit] Books/papers by Robert Olby

  • Charles Darwin; Oxford University Press, London, 1967, 64pp.
  • Early Nineteenth Century European Scientists; Pergamon Press, 1967, 179pp. ISBN 0-415-14578-3
  • 'Rosalind Elsie Franklin' biography in "Dictionary of Scientific Biography", ed. Charles C. Gillespie (New York: Charles Scribner's sons) ISBN: 0684101211
  • The Path to the Double Helix: The Discovery of DNA; University of Washington Press, Seattle 1974 & revised 1994) ISBN 0-486-68117-3
  • Companion to the History of Modern Science (ed.); Routledge, London, 1990, 1081pp. ISBN 0-415-01988-5
  • "Robert Darlington: Forgotten Prophet of Genetics", American Scientist Nov-Dec 2004
  • Oxford Dictionary of National Biography:‘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: A Biography", Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, ISBN 9780879697983, to be published in late 2008; 450 pp; contents:

d Time Line Introduction 1. "You' re a Dog If You Haven' t Got A Nobel Prize" (Sydney Brenner) 2. A Difficult Act to Follow 3. From the Provinces to the Big City 4. War Work for the Royal Navy 5. Biology at the Strangeways 6. Helical Molecules at the Cavendish Laboratory 7. The DNA Fiasco 8. "Two Pitchmen in Search of A Helix" (Erwin Chargaff) 9. A Most Important Discovery 10. Publishing the Model 11. Employed by "the John Wayne of Crystallography" (Vittorio Luzzati) 12. The Genetic Code 13. Preaching the Central Dogma 14. Crick as Experimentalist 15. The Excitement of the Sixties 16. Speaking out on Controversial Subjects 17. Biological Complexity 18. Leaving the 'Old Country' 19. Taking the Plunge: Neuroscience 20. Eighty-eight Years Biographical Index Subject Index [c. 166,000 words in total]

  • [1] Oxford National Dictionary of Biography entry;

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

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[edit] External links