Robert Martin Stuart Smellie

FRSE Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE) is an award granted to individuals that the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland's national academy of science and Literature, letters, judged to be "eminently distinguished in their subject". ...

FIB (1927–1988) was a 20th-century Scottish biochemist and first Cathcart Professor of Biochemistry at the

University of Glasgow The University of Glasgow (abbreviated as ''Glas.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals; ) is a Public university, public research university in Glasgow, Scotland. Founded by papal bull in , it is the List of oldest universities in continuous ...

. The university's Smellie Prize is named after him.

Life

He was born in

Rothesay Rothesay ( ; ) is the principal town on the Isle of Bute, in the council area of Argyll and Bute, Scotland. It lies along the coast of the Firth of Clyde. It can be reached by a Caledonian MacBrayne ferry from Wemyss Bay, which also offers an ...

on 1 April 1927, the son of Rev William Thomas Smellie, the local minister, and his wife, Jean Craig. He was educated at the

High School of Dundee The High School of Dundee is a private, co-educational, day school in Dundee, Scotland, which provides nursery, primary and secondary education to just over one thousand pupils. Its foundation has been dated to 1239, and it is the only private sc ...

and

Glasgow Academy The Glasgow Academy is a coeducational private day school for pupils aged 3–18 in Glasgow, Scotland. In 2016, it had the third-best Higher level exam results in Scotland. Founded in 1845, it is the oldest continuously fully private school in ...

. He graduated B.Sc from the

University of St Andrews The University of St Andrews (, ; abbreviated as St And in post-nominals) is a public university in St Andrews, Scotland. It is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, oldest of the four ancient universities of Scotland and, f ...

in 1947 but was then asked to serve two years

National Service National service is a system of compulsory or voluntary government service, usually military service. Conscription is mandatory national service. The term ''national service'' comes from the United Kingdom's National Service (Armed Forces) Act ...

. During this period he was commissioned into the

Royal Scots Fusiliers The Royal Scots Fusiliers was a line infantry regiment of the British Army that existed from 1678 until 1959 when it was amalgamated with the Highland Light Infantry (City of Glasgow Regiment) to form the Royal Highland Fusiliers (Princess Ma ...

and with the Chemical Defence Establishment at

Porton Down Porton Down is a science and defence technology campus in Wiltshire, England, just north-east of the village of Porton, near Salisbury. It is home to two British government facilities: a site of the Ministry of Defence's Defence Science and ...

, where he worked on nerve gases. In 1949 he became assistant to Professor Norman Davidson at the University of Glasgow. In 1964 he was elected a Fellow of the

Royal Society of Edinburgh The Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE) is Scotland's national academy of science and letters. It is a registered charity that operates on a wholly independent and non-partisan basis and provides public benefit throughout Scotland. It was establis ...

. His proposers were

James Norman Davidson James Norman Davidson CBE PRSE FRS (5 March 1911 – 11 September 1972) was a British biochemist, pioneer molecular biologist and textbook author. The Davidson Building at the University of Glasgow is named for him. Life He was the only child o ...

Robert Garry Robert Campbell Garry, OBE, FRSE, (21 April 1900 – 16 April 1993) was a British physician and Professor of Medicine at the University of St Andrews and the University of Glasgow. During World War II, as an expert on human physiology, he ad ...

, Hamish Munro and Michael Stoker. He served as General Secretary of the Society 1976 to 1986 and won their Bicentenary Medal in 1986. In 1966 he became Professor of Biochemistry at Glasgow. He died on 12 March 1988.

Family

In 1954 he married Florence Mary Devlin Adam, a physician.

Publication

*''From Molecules to Man'' (1966) *''Current Trends in the Biochemistry of Lipids'' (1972)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Smellie, Robert Martin Stuart 1927 births 1988 deaths People educated at the High School of Dundee People educated at the Glasgow Academy Alumni of the University of St Andrews Academics of the University of Glasgow Scottish biochemists Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh