scholarly journals Robert McNeill Alexander. 7 July 1934—21 March 2016

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gordon Alexander
Keyword(s):  
Legged Locomotion ◽  
Natural Sciences ◽  
Muscle Fibres ◽  
Energy Costs ◽  
Subsequent Work ◽  
Animal Locomotion ◽  
Zoological Society ◽  
University Of Cambridge ◽  
North Wales ◽  
The University

Neill Alexander graduated in natural sciences at the University of Cambridge in 1955. After a PhD at Cambridge and a lecturership at the University College of North Wales in Bangor, he was appointed to the chair of the Department of Pure and Applied Zoology at the University of Leeds in 1969. At that stage, he switched his research interests abruptly from fishes to the mechanics of legged locomotion. He conducted experiments with a variety of mammals, calculating forces, stresses and strains in muscle fibres, bones and tendons. His speciality became the application of mathematical models to animal locomotion, including repurposing the Froude number, devised by the Victorian engineer William Froude (FRS 1870) for use with ships, to estimate the speed of dinosaurs based on the spacing of their fossil footprints. Subsequent work included modelling the optimization of mammal performance and the minimization of energy costs. In 1992, following an announcement that London Zoo would have to close as a result of shortage of funds, Neill was appointed secretary of the Zoological Society of London. During the period of his secretaryship, the Society's finances recovered, with both its zoos (London and Whipsnade) breaking even in 1993 and the Society returning a surplus in each subsequent year. Neill was awarded the CBE in 2000. The National Portrait Gallery holds his portrait by John Arnison.

I.—The First Season's Work. Preliminary Narrative

1888 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
pp. 149-174
Author(s):  
D. G. Hogarth
Keyword(s):  
Considerable Time ◽  
Subsequent Work ◽  
Classical Archaeology ◽  
University Of Cambridge ◽  
High Commissioner ◽  
Willingness To Help ◽  
To Come ◽  
The Many ◽  
The University

The movement in favour of organised research in Cyprus which, originating in the latter part of the summer of 1887, led before the end of the year to the formation of a Fund directed by a Committee comprising all those who are most prominent in supporting the study of Classical Archaeology in this country, has been set forth already in circulars and reports, and needs only a brief allusion here in order to explain the causes and conditions of our subsequent work at Old Paphos and other sites in the winter and spring of this year. In the early mouths of 1887, Dr. F. H. H. Guillemard, the well-known traveller and ornithologist, spent a considerable time in Cyprus, and in the less known parts of the island saw and heard so much of continual discoveries, legitimate and illegitimate, that, on his return to England, he lost no time in pressing the desirability of sending an expedition on many who were interested in matters archaeological, with the result that the University of Cambridge took into consideration the question of making a grant from the Worts Travelling Bachelor's Fund for that purpose. The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies was also sounded, and many circumstances conspired to induce their favourable consideration for such a proposal. Besides the valuable information communicated by Dr. Guillemard, it was known that the High Commissioner of Cyprus had resolved for sufficient reasons, which need not be detailed here, to discountenance in future all private exploration in the island, but at the same time had declared his willingness to help any work organised and conducted by a recognised scientific body: it resulted therefore that, unless such bodies undertook the task, no one would attempt to solve the many problems connected with the island for some years to come.

Siegfried Ruhemann (1859-1943), F.R.S. 1914-1923

1993 ◽  
Vol 47 (2) ◽  
pp. 271-276 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Natural Philosophy ◽  
Natural Sciences ◽  
Professional Relationships ◽  
Cambridge University ◽  
University Of Cambridge ◽  
Advanced Students ◽  
Royal Institution ◽  
James Dewar ◽  
The University ◽  
Successful Teaching

In October 1891 James Dewar, Jacksonian Professor of Natural Philosophy in the University of Cambridge, and Director of the Royal Institution in London, had printed for private circulation the correspondence relating to his attempt to secure the dismissal of his Assistant in Cambridge, Siegfried Ruhemann Ph.D. of Berlin University. There is a copy of this rare pamphlet of 58 pages in the Cambridge University Library (Cam. c . 891.12), and it is from this that the quotations are taken, unless otherwise attributed. When Dewar was elected to his chair in 1875, at the age of 33, he made clear that he would need an assistant to prepare his lecture demonstrations, and he brought with him from Edinburgh his 22-year old student assistant, Alexander Scott. In the following year Scott was awarded an exhibition which seems to have allowed him to enrol as an undergraduate while still working for Dewar. He obtained first-class honours in part I of the Natural Sciences Tripos and remained in his post until 1884, lecturing on organic and physical chemistry, and supervising advanced students in their first taste of research. After 12 years of very successful teaching at Durham School, Scott was called back by Dewar, this time to act as Superintendent of the Davy-Faraday laboratory which Ludwig Mond had established next door to the original Royal Institution. And here he stayed until 1911 when the managers, doubtless at Dewar’s instigation, terminated his appointment. The acrimony which attended the severance of this long association was typical of Dewar’s professional relationships; which brings us back to Siegfried Ruhemann.

scholarly journals The influence of the position of the cut upon regeneration in Gunda ulvæ.

1914 ◽  
Vol 87 (596) ◽  
pp. 355-366 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Central Nervous System ◽  
Nervous System ◽  
Nerve Roots ◽  
Zoological Society ◽  
Marine Biological Association ◽  
University Of Cambridge ◽  
Cerebral Ganglia ◽  
The Central Nervous System ◽  
The University ◽  
Anterior Regeneration

In 1899 Hallez (4) made the generalisation that the most important difference between the regeneration in Triclad and Polyclad Planarians was to be found in the fact that fragments of the former could regenerate in the absence of the central nervous system, whilst in the latter some portion of the cerebral ganglia must be present in order for regeneration to take place. Child (1) has confirmed the fact that the presence of cerebral ganglia, or at least intact nerve roots, is necessary for regeneration of the anterior end and sense organs of Polyclads. The experimental work by the same and other authors has also established that, among Triclads, the genus Planaria is able to regenerate completely in the absence of cerebral ganglia. The following notes, however, show that in another Triclad genus, namely, Gunda , anterior regeneration is, as in Polyclads, dependent on the presence of the central nervous system. The experiments described below were carried out in the Plymouth Laboratory of the Marine Biological Association during the spring of 1913. I am greatly indebted to the director and staff of the laboratory for constant kindness during the course of my work at Plymouth. I also stand under obligations to the Royal Society, the Zoological Society, and the University of Cambridge for the use of their tables at the Plymouth Laboratory.

INTERVIEW WITH PETINA GAPPAH

Imbizo ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 92-98
Author(s):  
Faith Mkwesha
Keyword(s):  
Short Stories ◽  
Short Story ◽  
First Language ◽  
Short Story Collection ◽  
The Third ◽  
University Of Cambridge ◽  
Book Award ◽  
The University ◽  
The Guardian ◽  
University Of Zimbabwe

This interview was conducted on 16 May 2009 at Le Quartier Francais in Franschhoek, Cape Town, South Africa. Petina Gappah is the third generation of Zimbabwean writers writing from the diaspora. She was born in 1971 in Zambia, and grew up in Zimbabwe during the transitional moment from colonial Rhodesia to independence. She has law degrees from the University of Zimbabwe, the University of Cambridge, and the University of Graz. She writes in English and also draws on Shona, her first language. She has published a short story collection An Elegy for Easterly (2009), first novel The Book of Memory (2015), and another collection of short stories, Rotten Row (2016).  Gappah’s collection of short stories An Elegy for Easterly (2009) was awarded The Guardian First Book Award in 2009, and was shortlisted for the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award, the richest prize for the short story form. Gappah was working on her novel The Book of Memory at the time of this interview.

Environmental engineering education in conjunction with or as Part of social sciences curricula

2000 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 47-54 ◽  
Author(s):  
H.H. Hahn
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Engineering Education ◽  
Business Administration ◽  
Natural Sciences ◽  
Environmental Engineering ◽  
Basic Question ◽  
Basic Training ◽  
The University ◽  
Engineering Programme ◽  
Environmental Infrastructure

Traditionally in Germany environmental engineering education took place within the context of a civil engineering programme. There were reasons for this: the beginning of much of what we understand today to be environmental works fell within the parameters of city engineering. There were and are advantages mostly in view of the necessary planning, construction and operation of environmental infrastructure. There are also disadvantages which become more and more pronounced as the field of environmental protection expands: the civil engineer frequently lacks basic training in disciplines such as biology and chemistry and carries a large and sometimes burdensome knowledge of other less relevant subjects. Thus, educators begin to look for alternatives. This paper deals with an alternative that was developed some ten years ago and therefore has proven viable and successful: at the University of Karlsruhe students may choose to major in environmental engineering within the context or on the basis of an economics and business administration curriculum. The basic question here is as to what extent the student masters the field of environmental engineering if he or she has predominantly a solid background in social sciences and very little in natural sciences. The paper will describe the curriculum in structure and intensity and evaluate the accumulated knowledge and suitability of these students in terms of actual environmental problems. This will be done in terms of examination performance parallel and/or relative to traditionally trained civil environmental engineers as well as in terms of topics successfully treated in Masters' theses. In conclusion, it is argued that such combination of curricula should not be confined to economic sciences and environmental engineering but also be planned for legal sciences and environmental engineering.

2005 Verriest Medal awarded to Professor John D. Mollon

2006 ◽  
Vol 23 (3-4) ◽  
pp. ii-ii
Keyword(s):  
Color Vision ◽  
Full Spectrum ◽  
Visual Neuroscience ◽  
Evolutionary Origins ◽  
University Of Cambridge ◽  
Color Vision Tests ◽  
Spectral Coding ◽  
History Of ◽  
The University

The International Colour Vision Society awarded the 2005 Verriest Medal to John D. Mollon, Professor of Visual Neuroscience at the University of Cambridge, UK. This award is bestowed by the Society to honor long-term contributions to the field of color vision. If the field of color vision were itself a rainbow, then Professor Mollon's contributions cover nearly its full spectrum, including the isolation and elucidation of basic chromatic coding mechanisms and the constraints that they impose on human (and more generally primate) visual performance, the genetic basis of spectral coding mechanisms, the ecological influences on and evolutionary origins of chromatic discrimination. He has been instrumental in the design of several new color vision tests and has extensively exploited abnormal models, both congenital and acquired, to further our understanding of normal mechanisms. He is especially appreciated for his keen and profound sense of the history of science, in particular with respect to the field of color vision. He has been a member of the society for over 25 years and is currently serving on its board of directors. He organized the 2001 ICVS meeting in Cambridge, celebrating the bicentennial of Thomas Young's lecture on color vision.

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