Eric Ashby, Baron Ashby

The Ashby Building at Queen's University Belfast

Eric Ashby, Baron Ashby FRS (born August 24, 1904 in Leytonstone , † October 22, 1992 in Cambridge ) was a British botanist . He was considered an excellent scientist who devoted himself to the problems of academic education, education about environmental pollution, and the relationship between science and society.

Early years

Eric Ashby was the oldest of three brothers; even his father was an excellent amateur naturalist. At first he was interested in chemistry and mathematics , but then decided to study botany . Ashby studied at the City of London School and the Royal College of Science , where he received an excellent Bachelor of Science degree in 1926 and the Forbes Medal and Prize . One focus of his studies was on the duckweed , exploring the factors that contribute to its growth. From 1926 to 1929 he was an assistant at Imperial College . In 1929 he received a Harkness Fellowship at the University of Chicago , where he researched the breeding of corn plants .

Career as a scientist

From 1931 to 1935 Ashby was a lecturer at Imperial College and from 1935 to 1938 at the University of Bristol . Together with Henrik Lundegårdh, he published a German-English botany dictionary in 1938. From 1938 to 1946 Ashby was professor of botany at the University of Sydney , where he made a name for himself as one of Australia's leading scientists. From 1940 to 1942 he was chairman of the Australian National Research Council and in 1942 carried out a research into wartime scientific resources for the Australian Prime Minister. Between 1944 and 1945 he worked as a scientific advisor in Moscow for the Australian government.

In 1946 Eric Ashby returned to Great Britain. From 1947 to 1950 he held the Harrison Chair for Botany at the University of Manchester : “His enthusiasm and flair for botany made Manchester one of the leading botanical schools in the United Kingdom.” (Eng. “His enthusiasm and flair for Botany made Manchester one of the leading botanical schools in the UK. ”) He contributed to the Pengiun Book New Biology as the author of an article on hybrid hybrids and became known to the wider public through his book Scientist in Russia , in which he describes his experiences in Moscow described where he had also learned Russian.

In academic administration

From 1950 to 1959 Ashby was President and Vice-Chancellor of Queen's University in Belfast because he represented the interests of the university publicly. Being a good speaker, a skilled senate and a gifted mediator, he soon became popular in Northern Ireland . Soon he was devoting himself more to university and educational issues than to his actual science.

From 1959 to 1975 he was at the University of Cambridge Masters of Clare College and Vice Chancellor of the University of Cambridge from 1967 to 1969. He was also a member of an education commission for Nigeria . From 1968 to 1974 he was chairman of the governors of the Culford School and from 1970 to 1973 chairman of the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution . In 1972 he was a member of a working group at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in Stockholm . In 1973 he became President and Chancellor of Queen's University in Belfast. In 1956 Eric Ashby was knighted and in 1973 raised to life peer as Baron Ashby , of Brandon in the County of Suffolk .

From 1935 to 1938 Ashby was secretary of the Society for Experimental Biology and from 1962 to 1963 President of the British Association for the Advancement of Science . In 1961 he was elected an honorary foreign member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences . He was an advisor to the British National Fruit Traders Association , a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) and received a Centenary Medal from the Royal Society of Tasmania . In 1975 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh . He had honorary doctorates from 20 different universities and published numerous books.

family

Eric Ashby had been married to Elizabeth Helen Margaret Farries since 1931, whom he met while collaborating on combustion techniques for measuring carbon in tissue. The couple had two children.

Publications (selection)

As a scientist in Russia (1949)
Technology and the Academics (1958)
African Universities and Western Tradition (1964)
Masters and Scholars (1970)
Reconciling Man with the Environment (1978)
With Mary Anderson: The Politics of Clean Air (1981).
With Mary Anderson: British, Indian, African (1966)
The Rise of the Student Estate (1970)
Portrait of Haldane (1974)

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g Royal Society of Edinburgh Biography: Biography of Baron Ashby (PDF; 44 kB)

↑ Eric Ashby on oxforddnb.com ( Memento of the original from March 7, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (paid access) @1@ 2

↑ Book of Members, 1780-2010: Chapter (PDF; 536 kB) American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Retrieved September 5, 2013.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME	Ashby, Eric, Baron Ashby
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	British botanist
DATE OF BIRTH	August 24, 1904
PLACE OF BIRTH	Leytonstone
DATE OF DEATH	October 22, 1992
Place of death	Cambridge

[bio-1] ↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g Royal Society of Edinburgh Biography: Biography of Baron Ashby (PDF; 44 kB)