fife’s scientists & innovators

Fife’s Scientists & Innovators

Folk Fae Fife The Fife Science Festival


Dr LWS Petznick

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Business-Industry/science

http://www.carnegiecollege.ac.uk/

http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/~rab/geoheritagefife.html

http://www.britishscienceassociation.org.uk/

http://www.st-and.ac.uk/

http://www.adamsmith.ac.uk/


• Dr LWS Petznick

•Born in Fife

•Studied in Fife

•Worked in Fife

•Taught in Fife










• Dr LWS Petznick

• Methodology

• How these people were identified

• The Royal Society

• Nobel Prize winners

• Internet










• Dr LWS Petznick



Prof. William Fischer Mary Somerville








• Dr LWS Petznick

Mary Somerville 1780-1872, Burntisland

The term scientist was inspired by Somerville’s writings. So, in a sense, she was the first scientist. When social conventions to family allowed, she wrote articles about science and earned international acclaim. She and Caroline Herschel were the first two female members of the Royal Astronomical Society, as such they were pioneers for women scientists. Somerville College, Oxford, and a lunar crater are named in her honour.



Courtesy of Oxford University, 11137632








• Dr LWS Petznick

Elizabeth Garrett Anderson 9 June 1836 – 17 Dec 1917,

University of St Andrews student, St Andrews

Anderson was a pioneer in medicine. She was the first female to study medicine at St Andrews University in 1862, but the furore surrounding this lead to the revocation of her place. Even so, in 1865 she became the first licensed female to practice medicine in Britain










• Dr LWS Petznick

Dr. Louisa Garrett Anderson, CBE 28 July 1873 – 11 Nov 1943,

St Leonards School alumna, St Andrews

Daughter of Elizabeth Anderson, Louisa Anderson also made a name for herself as a physician in Britain. Her work establishing hospitals operated by women during World War I was pioneering.










• Dr LWS Petznick

Sir James W. Black 14 June 1924 - 22 March 2010, University of St Andrews alumnus

Black’s pharmaceutical strengths earned him a Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1988 for his work to develop drugs. Black is responsible for both propranolol and cimetidine, two types of beta-blockers used to prevent heart failure. He attended Beath High School in Cowdenbeath and then University College of The University of St Andrews.










• Dr LWS Petznick

John Goodsir 20 March 1814 – 6 March 1867,

University of St Andrews alumnus

born Anstruther

After studying at St Andrews, Goodsir apprenticed in dentistry in Edinburgh where he later taught anatomy. In Anstruther, he wrote an influential essay on Teeth (1840), and his "Anatomical Memoirs” were published posthumously. His work allegedly led to a restoration of Edinburgh’s reputation for medicine.



From Gray’s Anatomy








• Dr LWS Petznick

Sir David Jack Born 22 Feb 1924, in Markinch

As a pharmacologist, Jack developed major drugs. Salbutamol (Ventolin®), an asthma inhaler, and ranitidine (Zantac®), a treatment for peptic ulcers, are credited to him. His contributions to medicine have saved millions of lives in Fife and across the world.










• Dr LWS Petznick

Edward Jenner 17 May 1749 – 26 Jan 1823,


Jenner, most noted for his development of a smallpox vaccine, is considered to be the “father of immunology”. Prior to his pioneering smallpox treatment, there had been no immunizations against disease. He earned his M.D. from St Andrews in 1792.










Arthur Masterman 1869-1941,

University of St Andrews alumnus,

research fellow then lecturer

Masterman was a zoologist who wrote the Elementary Textbook on Zoology (1901) and co-wrote with William Carmichael McIntosh (q.v), The Life-Histories of the British Marine Food Fishes (1897). He became a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1915. His portrait is in the National Portrait Gallery in London.



Professor William Carmichael M’Intosh, FRS

1838-1931, University of St Andrews alumnus & Professor, born in St Andrews

M’Intosh co-wrote with Arthur Masterman (q.v), The Life-Histories of the British Marine Food Fishes (1897). He was director of the University of St Andrews Museum and the Gatty Marine Laboratory. He was influential in founding a modern medical school at St Andrews and in creating a botanic garden there. He became a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1877.








• Dr LWS Petznick

James Bell Pettigrew, FRS 26 May 1832 - 30 Jan 1908,

University of St Andrews Professor

Pettigrew was last occupant of the Chandos chair of medicine and anatomy, as it was renamed after his death. He published numerous books on anatomy and biology, including Animal Locomotion (1874) and Design in Nature (1908). The Bell Pettigrew Museum at the University of St Andrews was named in his honour.










• Dr LWS Petznick

Sir D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson

CB FRS FRSE 2 May 1860 – 21 June 1948,

University of St Andrews professor, St Andrews

His contributions to biology, natural history and mathematics illustrate the breadth of his knowledge and the inter-relationship between scientific disciplines. Famous for his On Growth and Form (1917), he showed how physical laws of mechanics influence the form of living organisms.










James Carmichael Smyth 1741 - 18 June 1821, Balmedie, Fife

Smyth discovered a method for the prevention of contagion in cases of fever using nitrous acid gas, and wrote several treatises on this subject and on other medical matters. Served George III as one of his physicians.










• Dr LWS Petznick

Sir James Dewar 20 Sept 1842 – 27 Mar 1923,

born in Kincardine-on-Forth

Dewar specialized in chemistry and physics. He was the first Britain to earn a Lavoisier Medal in 1904. His principle contributions to science involved liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen, and he invented the Dewar flask, which is like a thermos, and cordite, a smokeless explosive.










• Dr LWS Petznick

CELLUCOMP Dr Eric Whale and Dr David Hepworth

Burntisland, now

With Dr Hepworth, Whale has developed nano-fibres from carrots, which have a unique set of characteristics—strength, flexibility and lightness. They currently have used the curran material for fishing rods but project that the material may have numerous applications, including battleships.

This is SUSTAINABLE ENERGY










• Dr LWS Petznick

Sir David Brewster, LLD, FRS 1781-1868, University of St Andrews Professor

Eminent physicist, Brewster was a pioneer in optical crystallography and mineralogy. He invented the kaleidoscope in 1816. He discovered Gmelinite, Levyne and Epistilibite, all zeolites, and the mineral Brewsterite is named in his honour. “A refracted beam of light is plane-polarized if the reflected and refracted beams are perpendicular to each other” is Brewster’s Law.










James Gregory Nov 1638 – Oct 1675,

University of St Andrews professor

Gregory’s contributions to mathematics led to his placement as the first Regius Chair for Mathematics at St Andrews by Charles II. Often compared to Isaac Newton, Gregory made many advances in trigonometry, discovering infinite series representations for several trigonometric functions. He also described the first reflecting telescope. As he lacked the skill to manufacture his design, it was a decade before the first Gregorian telescope was produced by Robert Hooke.










• Dr LWS Petznick

John Napier of Merchiston 1550 – 4 Apr 1617,


Napier was a mathematician, physicist, astronomer and astrologer who was born in Edinburgh and studied at St Andrews. He is most famous as the inventor of logarithms. He published Mirifici logarithmorum canonis descriptio in 1614 and consistently used a decimal point.










• Dr LWS Petznick

James David Forbes, FRS 20 April 1809 – 31 Dec 1868,

University of St Andrews Principal

Forbes worked extensively on the conduction of heat, seismology and glaciology. He was the first to describe mathematically the behaviour of a seismic instrument in an "earthquake". A series of earthquakes in Comrie, Perthshire led to his invention of a seismometer in 1844.










• Dr LWS Petznick

Sir John Leslie

10 Apr 1766 – 3 Nov 1832,

Largo, Leven and


Leslie gave the first modern account of capillary action in 1802 and froze water using an air-pump in 1810, the first artificial production of ice. In 1804, he experimented with radiant heat using a cubical vessel filled with boiling water, showing that that radiation was greatest from the black side and negligible from the polished side. The apparatus is known as a Leslie cube.










• Dr LWS Petznick

Wilson Sibbett, FRS, CBE Working now,

University of St Andrews Professor

Sibbett is a pioneer of ultra-fast lasers, which are rapid pulses of light that last only a few femtoseconds and which have important applications for medicine. Sibbett was Scotland’s first chief advisor on science and remains the Wardlaw Professor of Physics at the University of St Andrews.










• Dr LWS Petznick

Sir Robert Alexander Watson-Watt, KCB, FRS, FRAeS 13 Apr 1892 – 5 Dec 1973,


Watson-Watt is most noted for developing radar [radio detection and ranging] at Bawdsey Manor. Born in Brechin, he studied at University College in Dundee, then part of the University of St Andrews. Professor William Peddie encouraged Watson-Watt to study wireless telegraphy, which is how radio was then known.










• Dr LWS Petznick

Alexander Bruce,

2nd Earl of Kincardine FRS 1629-1681, Culross

Bruce was a judge and politician, but he is credited for inventing the pendulum clock in collaboration with Christiaan Huygens. It was vastly superior to verge clocks and used gravity to measure time. Pendulum clocks were the main timekeepers until the 1930s. Bruce was a founding member of the Royal Society.










• Dr LWS Petznick

William Bald 1789–1857, Burntisland

The Fife cartographer, surveyor & civil engineer worked mainly in Ireland & Scotland. His work on the Antrim Coast Road was heralded by the David Orr of the Institution of Civil Engineers as "an immeasurable legacy to the people of the Glens of Antrim...[Bald] created one of the finest tourist routes in the world".



www.irondonkey.com








• Dr LWS Petznick

James Bowman Lindsay 8 Sept 1799 - 29 June 1862, University of St Andrews alumnus

St Leonards School alumna, St Andrews

Lindsay distinguished himself at St Andrews. In 1829 he became a lecturer at the Watt Institution in Dundee. Allegedly he invented the incandescent light bulb, submarine telegraphy and arc welding, but claims are not well documented though evidence remains that he “demonstrated a constant electric light” in Dundee in July 1835, years before Thomas Edison.










• Dr LWS Petznick

Who invented the lightbulb and when?



1809 Humphry Davy ?

1879 1835 Lindsay?









Conclusion







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