scholarly journals Robert Edward Bell, 29 November 1918 - 1 April 1992

1995 ◽  
Vol 41 ◽  
pp. 56-69

Robert Edward Bell, a distinguished Canadian physicist, Fellow of the Royal Society, former President of the Royal Society of Canada and former Principal and Vice- Chancellor of McGill University, died on 1 April 1992 in Vancouver, Canada, after a long and difficult illness.

1925 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
pp. 151-152

My Lord Chancellor, Mr. Vice-Chancellor, Dr. Campbell, Ladies and Gentlemen: It would be an impertinence on my part to try to add anything to the Cambridge welcome which the Chancellor has offered you, but it is my privilege to be allowed to offer you a few words of welcome from a somewhat different angle. As the Chancellor has said, it is my good fortune to be officially connected with the two learned societies to whom, I suppose, your visit to this country means most: the Royal Society, which takes all natural knowledge for its province, and which is especially interested in international co-operation in the pursuit of such knowledge, and the Royal Astronomical Society, which takes astronomical knowledge for its special care. I am sure that both these bodies would wish that I should seize this opportunity to offer a most cordial welcome to our astronomical visitors from other countries; a welcome not only to Cambridge, but to this country in general. We feel it right that your visit should begin at Cambridge, but we are sure it is not right that it should end there; we hope you will remember that, after Cambridge, London also exists.


1935 ◽  
Vol 1 (4) ◽  
pp. 584-589

John James Rickard Macleod, the son of the Rev. Robert Macleod, was born at Cluny, near Dunkeld, Perthshire, on September 6, 1876. He received his preliminary education at Aberdeen Grammar School and in 1893 entered Marischal College, University of Aberdeen, as a medical student. After a distinguished student career he graduated M.B., Ch.B. with Honours in 1898 and was awarded the Anderson Travelling Fellowship. He proceeded to Germany and worked for a year in the Physiological Institute of the University of Leipzig. He returned to London on his appointment as a Demonstrator of Physiology at the London Hospital Medical College under Professor Leonard Hill. Two years later he was appointed to the Lectureship on Biochemistry in the same college. In 1901 he was awarded the McKinnon Research Studentship of the Royal Society. At the early age of 27 (in 1902) he was appointed Professor of Physiology at the Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, a post he occupied until 1918, when he was elected Professor of Physiology at the University of Toronto. Previous to this transfer he had, during his last two years at Cleveland, been engaged in various war duties and incidentally had acted for part of the winter session of 1916 as Professor of Physiology at McGill University, Montreal. He remained at Toronto for ten years until, in 1928, he was appointed Regius Professor of Physiology in the University of Aberdeen, a post he held, in spite of steadily increasing disability, until his lamentably early death on March 16, 1935, at the age of 58.


Robert L. Richards, Dr John Rae . Caedmon of Whitby, Publishers, 1994. Pp. 231, £10.50 (Paperback). ISBN 0 905355 29 6. John Rae (1813-1893) was more typically a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, which awarded him its Founders’ Gold Medal in 1852, than of the Royal Society, which elected him in 1880. An Orkneyman of exceptional health and strength, his prowess was the ability to cover astonishing distances over rugged Arctic and sub-Arctic terrain on foot or by canoe. By his own reckoning, during his most active period as an explorer Rae covered a total of 6555 miles on foot and 6700 miles by open boat, including 1765 miles of unknown territory from 1844 to 1854 (at a cost, he added, of only £2 15s per mile.) After qualifying in Edinburgh as a surgeon - his Doctorate was a later honorary award by McGill University - Rae entered the service of the Hudson’s Bay Company, and spent 23 years based in that Company’s remote outposts. His energy, intelligence, ability to survive harsh winters in icy wilderness, and general bonhomie , attracted Governor Sir George Simpson to appoint Rae to lead expeditions to explore the complex northern coastal regions, with an eye to the Victorian dream of a Northwest Passage. As a preliminary trip, Rae travelled 1200 miles (in snowshoes!) to Sault Ste. Marie, in order to receive rudimentary but sound tuition in astronomy and surveying


1994 ◽  
Vol 40 ◽  
pp. 1-29

Richard Evelyn Donohue Bishop, Vice-Chancellor and Principal of Brunei University, Uxbridge, died after a short illness at Queen Alexandra’s Hospital, Portsmouth, on Tuesday 12 September 1989. Although he suffered a mild heart attack some 14 months earlier, his death was caused by the combined effects of a hepatic abscess and septicaemia. Ironically, for this very active individual, his heart had fully recovered from the earlier damage. Dick had a fine, clear mind which brought him significant achievements and honours in the scientific world. He was a Fellow of the Royal Society (1980), a Vice-President and Member of the Council of the Royal Society (1986-1988), a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering (1977), a Fellow of the Institution of Mechanical Engineering, a Fellow of the Royal Institution of Naval Architects, a Member of the Royal Aeronautical Society, and a Chartered Engineer. Other awards bestowed upon him were Commonwealth Fund Fellow (1949-1951), Fellow of University College London (1964), President of the British Acoustical Society (now the Institute of Acoustics, 1966-1968), Hon. Member, Royal Corps of Naval Constructors (1968), CBE (1979), and Hon. Fellow, Portsmouth Polytechnic (now University, 1982). A distinguished engineer with an international reputation both in mechanical engineering and naval architecture, Dick was recognized as a communicator par excellence in matters of science and engineering. In technical matters he was a man of vision, able to discuss the principles of mathematics and engineering. He sought academic excellence and scholarship in the tasks he set himself and had the ability to take a complex dynamics problem and reduce it to a discussion or analysis of the fundamental principles involved. Although trained as a mechanical engineer, when asked about his professional background the usual response was ‘a dynamicist and a sort of engineer’. There is no doubting his love for dynamics. He enjoyed change - even change for change’s sake - and quickly became bored by statics and steady state, both professionally and in administration.


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