| Authorised form of name | May; Robert McCredie (1936 - 2020); Baron May of Oxford |
| Dates | 1936 - 2020 |
| Nationality | Australian |
| Place of birth | Sydney, Australia, Australasia |
| Date of birth | 08/01/1936 |
| Date of death | 28/04/2020 |
| Occupation | Biologist |
| Research field | Biology |
| Epidemiology |
| Ecology |
| Population genetics |
| Biological models |
| Evolution |
| Applied mathematics |
| Activity | Education:
"My secondary school was Sydney Boys' High School. It was the first secondary school established in Sydney, and was essentially a state grammar. It had a superb set of teachers, including a remarkable chemistry teacher who taught no fewer than eight fellows of the Royal Society (including one Nobel laureate). The same chemistry teacher coached the track team, which won the state-school championship 28 of the 33 years he coached the team. As in the UK, a misguided Government disestablished most of the selective state schools, with the result that private schools were academically strengthened - just like the UK."
Sydney University, BSc Hons (1956, Physics and Maths); PhD (1959, Theoretical Physics)
Career:
Gordon MacKay Lecturer in Applied Mathematics, Harvard University; Senior Lecturer, Reader, Professor of Theoretical Physics, Sydney University (1969); Professor of Zoology, Princeton University (1973); Class of 1877 Professor of Zoology and Vice President (Research), Princeton University (1973) and Visiting Professor, Department of Zoology, Imperial College London (1979); Chairman, University Reseach Board, Princeton University (1977-1988); Professor of Zoology, Oxford University and Imperial College, London (1988); Royal Society Research Professor (1988); modelled the spread of HIV and AIDS in Africa, with Roy Anderson (FRS 1986); Chief Scientific Advisor to the British Government and Head, Office of Science and Technology (1995-2000); Fellow of Merton College, Oxford; became a 'people's peer' and life member of the House of Lords (2001); honorary degrees from Uppsala University (1990), Yale University (1993), University of Sydney (1995), Princeton University (1996); Executive Trustee, Nuffield Foundation, Board Member UK Sport Institute, Foundation Trustee of Cambridge University's Gates Trust; Chairman of Board of Trustees, Natural History Museum, London; Trustee of Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew; Independent Member of the Joint Nature Conservancy Councils; Trustee of WWF(UK); President British Ecological Society.
Honours:
Kt 1996; Companion of the Order of Australia 1998; Life Peer in the House of Lords 2001; OM 2002
Memberships:
Corresponding Member of the Australian Academy of Science (1991); Foreign Member, US National Academy of Sciences (1992); Academia Europaea (1994); British Ecological Society (1995, President ); Australian Academy of Technology Sciences and Engineering, (2001); Institute of Physics (2002); Royal Society of Edinburgh (2006); Linnean Society of London (2008; Australian Institute of Building (2009), Royal Society of New South Wales (2010)
Medals/Awards:
Honorary degrees from Uppsala University (1990), Yale University (1993), The University of Sydney (1995), Princeton University (1996; along with President Clinton, as part of the University's 250th Anniversary celebrations); University of Glasgow (2001); ETH Zürich (2003); Queen's University Belfast (2003);University of Oxford (2004); University of York (2004); University of Sheffield (2005); University of East Anglia (2007); Harvard University (2013). Weldon Memorial Prize by the University of Oxford (1980); American Ecological Society MacArthur Award (1984); Medal of the Linnean Society of London (1991); Frink Medal of the Zoological Society of London (1995); Royal Swedish Academy's Crafoord Prize for 'pioneering ecological research in theoretical analysis of the dynamics of populations, communities and ecosystems' (1996); awarded Balzan Prize by President of Italy for 'seminal contributions to the mathematical analysis of biodiversity, in particular his pioneering work on chaos theory and ecological systems and the development of a variety of methods for estimating the total number of species alive on earth today and rates of extinction' (1998); joint winner of the Blue Planet Prize for contributions towards solving global environmental problems for 'developing mathematical ecology and the fundamental tools for ecological conservation planning' (2001); Royal Society of Chemistry's Lord Lewis Prize (2008); Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management Medal for outstanding contribution in his field (2012); the Charles P Nash Prize (2013); UK Australian of the Year 2005 in the inaugural award introduced by the Australia Day Foundation in the UK, aimed at recognizing the achievements and contributions of thousands of expatriots living in Britain.
Memberships:
Hon Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering (2005) |
| Membership category | Fellow |
| Date of election | 15/03/1979 |
| Age at election | 43 |
| RSActivity | Royal Society roles:
PRS 2000-2005
Lectures:
Croonian 1985; Blackett Memorial 2002; Copley Medal 2007
Grants and fellowships:
University Research Professor in the Department of Zoology, Oxford University (1988) |
| Relationships | Son of Henry W May and Kathleen McCredie |
| PublishedWorks | Large Scale Ecology and Conservation Biology (Blackwell, 1994), Extinction Rates (Oxford University Press, 1995) and Evolution of Biological Diversity (OUP, 1999). Virus Dynamics: the Mathematical Foundations of Immunology and Virology (OUP, 2000), written with Martin Nowak. Earlier books include Stability and Complexity in Model Ecosystems (Princeton University Press, 1973, re-issued with a retrospective introduction in the Princeton Landmarks in Biology series, 2000), and Infectious Diseases of Humans: Transmission and Control (OUP, 1991, written with Roy Anderson). Edited volumes include Theoretical Ecology: Principles and Applications (Blackwell, 1976 and 1981), Population Biology of Infectious Diseases (Springer, 1982), Exploitation of Marine Ecosystems (Springer, 1984), Perspectives in Ecological Theory (Princeton University Press, 1988), and Population Regulation and Dynamics (Cambridge University Press, 1990). There are also several hundred papers in major scientific journals, and broader contributions to scientific journalism both in publications like Nature and Science, and in broadsheets, radio and TV (eg, as consultant to Attenborough's State of the Planet series).
|
| OtherInfo | Robert was is a theoretical ecologist, promoter of science and political influencer. Pioneering a mathematical approach to ecology, Robert established the field of theoretical ecology and developed influential and highly cited theories in population biology. He held several high-profile positions in the UK scientific and political establishments.
Initially enrolled in Chemical Engineering, May ended up with a BSc and a PhD in Theoretical Physics from Sydney University. He then spent two years as Gordon MacKay Lecturer in Applied Mathematics at Harvard University, returning to Sydney University as Senior Lecturer (later Reader and, at age 33, the holder of Sydney University's first Personal Chair) in Theoretical Physics. In the early 1970's he became interested in the dynamics of animal populations (particularly the "chaotic" dynamical behaviour that can arise) and in the relations between stability and complexity in natural communities the May–Wigner stability theorem. May's research dealt with factors influencing the diversity and abundance of plant and animal species, and with the rates, causes and consequences of extinction. May moved to Princeton University as Class of 1877 Professor of Zoology in 1973. From 1977 until he moved to Britain as a Royal Society Research Professor in 1988, he was Chairman of the University Research Board at Princeton University, having broad administrative responsibility for all externally and internally funded research.
In 1996, Robert was knighted for services to science. He became one of the first life peers in the House of Lords in 2001 and was appointed by Her Majesty The Queen to the Order of Merit in 2002. He served in several high-profile roles, including President of the Royal Society and Chief Scientific Adviser to the UK government.
Lord May was an Executive Trustee of the Nuffield Foundation, a Board Member of the UK Sport Institute, and a Foundation Trustee of Cambridge University's Gates Trust (established as an analogue of Oxford's Rhodes). A selected list of other such posts in the UK includes: Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Natural History Museum, London; Trustee of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew; Independent Member of the Joint Nature Conservancy Councils (JNCC); Trustee of WWF(UK); and President of the British Ecological Society. In his youth in Australia he played chess and contract bridge at the national level. In later life he remained an enthusiastic hiker, runner and tennis player.
Baron May of Oxford OM AC Kt HonFREng FRS died on 28 April 2020. |
| Source | Sources:
Nature (2/3/00); Financial Times 3/3/00; THES (11/8/00); http://mathshistory.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/May_Robert.html (29/4/20)
References:
Lord May of Oxford OM AC Kt FRS, 'The 2002 Royal Society Anniversary Address' in NR 2003 vol 57 pp 117-132
Lord May of Oxford, 'The 2003 Royal Society Anniversary Address' in NR 2004 vol 58 pp 131-145
R M May, 'The 2004 Royal Society Anniversary Address' in NR 2005 vol 59 pp 99-119
R M May, 'Address by Lord May PRS, given at the dedication of the memorial to Dr Robert Hooke at Westminster Abbey on 3 March 2005' in NR 2005 pp 321-324
R M May, 'The 2005 Royal Society Anniversary Address' in NR 2006 vol 60 pp 109-131
Anne Purkiss 'Scientists 1985 - 2010; Portraits of Fellows of the Royal Society' 2010, p. 37 |
| Virtual International Authority File | http://viaf.org/viaf/25799512 |
| Code | NA3413 |