Robert Cecil Olby (born in

Beckenham Beckenham () is a town in Greater London, England, within the London Borough of Bromley, in Greater London. Until 1965 it was part of the historic county of Kent. It is located south-east of Charing Cross, situated north of Elmers End and E ...

on October 4, 1933; died December 31, 2020) was a research professor in the Department of

History and Philosophy of Science The history and philosophy of science (HPS) is an academic discipline that encompasses the philosophy of science and the history of science. Although many scholars in the field are trained primarily as either historians or as philosophers, there ...

at the

University of Pittsburgh The University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) is a public state-related research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The university is composed of 17 undergraduate and graduate schools and colleges at its urban Pittsburgh campus, home to the univers ...

. Formerly

Reader A reader is a person who reads. It may also refer to: Computing and technology * Adobe Reader (now Adobe Acrobat), a PDF reader * Bible Reader for Palm, a discontinued PDA application * A card reader, for extracting data from various forms of ...

at the

University of Leeds , mottoeng = And knowledge will be increased , established = 1831 – Leeds School of Medicine1874 – Yorkshire College of Science1884 - Yorkshire College1887 – affiliated to the federal Victoria University1904 – University of Leeds , ...

, UK, Robert Olby is a historian of 19th and 20th century biology, his specialist fields being

genetics Genetics is the study of genes, genetic variation, and heredity in organisms.Hartl D, Jones E (2005) It is an important branch in biology because heredity is vital to organisms' evolution. Gregor Mendel, a Moravian Augustinian friar wor ...

and

molecular biology Molecular biology is the branch of biology that seeks to understand the molecular basis of biological activity in and between cells, including biomolecular synthesis, modification, mechanisms, and interactions. The study of chemical and physi ...

. With the assistance of Martin Packer, Olby completed an authorized biography of the late Francis Crick. It is entitled ''Francis Crick: Hunter of Life's Secrets'', after an article in

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

on February 2, 1962.

Books and papers by Robert Olby

* ''Charles Darwin'';

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...

, London, 1967, 64pp. * ''Early Nineteenth Century European Scientists'';

Pergamon Press Pergamon Press was an Oxford-based publishing house, founded by Paul Rosbaud and Robert Maxwell, that published scientific and medical books and journals. Originally called Butterworth-Springer, it is now an imprint of Elsevier. History The ...

, 1967, 179pp. *''The Origins of Mendelism''; Constable 1966. 204 pages * The Twentieth Century Sciences, ''Studies in the Biography of Ideas'', edited by

Gerald Holton Gerald James Holton (born May 23, 1922) is an American physicist, historian of science, and educator, whose professional interests also include philosophy of science and the fostering of careers of young men and women. He is Mallinckrodt Profes ...

; W.W. Norton & Co., New York 1972: article "Francis Crick, DNA, and the Central Dogma". * ' Rosalind Elsie Franklin' biography in ''Dictionary of Scientific Biography'', ed. Charles C. Gillespie (New York:

Charles Scribner's Sons Charles Scribner's Sons, or simply Scribner's or Scribner, is an American publisher based in New York City, known for publishing American authors including Henry James, Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Kurt Vonnegut, Marjorie Kinnan R ...

) *''The Path to the Double Helix: The Discovery of DNA'';

University of Washington Press The University of Washington Press is an American academic publishing house. The organization is a division of the University of Washington, based in Seattle. Although the division functions autonomously, they have worked to assist the universi ...

, Seattle 1974 & revised 1994) * ''Companion to the History of Modern Science'' (ed.);

Routledge Routledge () is a British multinational publisher. It was founded in 1836 by George Routledge, and specialises in providing academic books, journals and online resources in the fields of the humanities, behavioural science, education, law ...

, London, 1990, 1081pp. * "Robert Darlington: Forgotten Prophet of Genetics", '' American Scientist'' Nov-Dec 2004
"Quiet debut for the double helix"
''

Nature Nature, in the broadest sense, is the physical world or universe. "Nature" can refer to the phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. The study of nature is a large, if not the only, part of science. Although humans are ...

'' 421 (January 23, 2003): 402–405. *''

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') was published on 23 September ...

'':‘ 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: Hunter of Life's Secrets",

Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) is a private, non-profit institution with research programs focusing on cancer, neuroscience, plant biology, genomics, and quantitative biology. It is one of 68 institutions supported by the Cancer Centers ...

Press, , published 25 August 2009; 450 pp

and Peter Lawrence's review in "Current Biology

*'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

External links

*
His Australian lecture, March 2010

from the

Oregon State University Oregon State University (OSU) is a public land-grant, research university in Corvallis, Oregon. OSU offers more than 200 undergraduate-degree programs along with a variety of graduate and doctoral degrees. It has the 10th largest engineering c ...

web site.
For Martin Packer's web site: Remembering Francis Crick.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Olby, Robert Historians of science Academics of the University of Leeds 1933 births Living people

Books and papers by Robert Olby

See also

External links