Robert GW Anderson

Robert GW Anderson

Robert Geoffrey William Anderson (born May 2, 1944 in London ) is a British chemical historian . From 1992 to 2002 he was director of the British Museum .

Anderson studied chemistry at Oxford University ( St. John's College ) with a bachelor's degree in 1966 and a doctorate in 1977 on inelastic neutron scattering from adsorbed molecules. Then he was curator of the chemical and physical collection at the Royal Scottish Museum in Edinburgh and from 1975 at the Science Museum in London in the chemistry department. There he was entrusted with the integration of the Wellcome collection on the history of medicine and then head of the chemistry department. As secretary of the Science Museum's Advisory Board, he oversaw its privatization and then oversaw the privatization of the Royal Scottish Museum. When it was merged with the National Museum of Antiquities, he became director of the National Museums of Scotland in 1985 . Before completing the Museum of Scotland (1998), he became director of the British Museum in 1992 . During his time as museum director, the library ( British Library ) was moved into new premises and the Great Court was completed by Norman Foster . In 2002 he left the British Museum, spent a year at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton and then did research at Cambridge ( Clare Hall ). Since January 2017 he has been director of the US Chemical Heritage Foundation in Philadelphia.

He was particularly concerned with scientific instruments especially in chemistry and in museum collections. He also deals with Joseph Black (bibliography, letter edition) and Joseph Priestley and with museum history, for example the influence of museums on the workforce in the 19th century.

In 1986 he received the Dexter Award . From 1988 to 1990 he was President of the British Society for the History of Science. He has honorary doctorates in Edinburgh and Durham. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh , the Society of Antiquaries of London and the Royal Society of Chemistry , whose Wheeler Memorial Lecture he gave in 2004. For 2016 he was awarded the Paul Bunge Prize of the Society of German Chemists .

Fonts (selection)

• The Playfair Collection and the Teaching of Chemistry at the University of Edinburgh 1713-1858 . Royal Scottish Museum, Edinburgh 1978.
• with Christopher Lawrence (ed.): Science, Medicine and Dissent: Joseph Priestley 1733–1804 . Wellcome Trust, London 1987.
• with JG Fyffe (Ed.): Joseph Black. A Bibliography . Science Museum, London 1992.
• with ML Caygill, AG MacGregor, L. Syson (Eds.): Enlightening the British: Knowledge, Discovery and the Museum in the Eighteenth Century . British Museum Press, London 2003.
• with Jean Jones (Ed.): The Correspondence of Joseph Black . Ashgate, Farnham 2012

Web links

• Biography at the American Chemical Society
• Anderson at Clare Hall