| Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society | |
|---|---|
| Former name(s) | Obituary Notes of Fellows of the Royal Society |
| Language | English |
| Edited by | Tom Meade |
| Publication details | |
| Publisher | Royal Society |
| ISSN | 1748-8494 |
| Links | |
The Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society (formerly known as Obituary Notices of Fellows of the Royal Society) is an academic journal published annually by the Royal Society. It publishes obituaries of Fellows of the Royal Society. Biographical Memoirs has been published since 1955; Obituary Notices was published from 1932-1954 including biographies of Arthur Eddington[1], Ernest Rutherford[2] and Max Planck[3]. Prior to this, obituaries were published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society. They then developed from being relatively short, traditional obituaries to biographical essays. After 1955, the memoirs include life studies of many widely known scientists including Albert Einstein[4], Enrico Fermi [5], Alan Turing[6], Bertrand Russell[7], Erwin Schrödinger[8] and Claude Shannon[9]
The obituaries are often quite long and detailed. They include portraits provided by the Society's extensive archive and a copy of the original signature in the Royal Society Charter Book which all new Fellows must sign at election. Each memoir includes a full bibliography of work 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 most cases the author is also a Fellow.
Biographical Memoirs serve as an excellent source for research into biographies of scientists and for information about the history of science. Each year around 20 to 25 Memoirs of deceased Fellows of the Royal Society are collated by the editor in chief, currently Tom Meade.[10][11]