| Authorised form of name | Biffen; Sir; Rowland Harry (1874 - 1949); geneticist and agricultural botanist |
| Dates | 1874 - 1949 |
| Nationality | British |
| Place of birth | Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England, United Kingdom |
| Date of birth | 28 May 1874 |
| Place of death | Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, England, United Kingdom |
| Date of death | 12 July 1949 |
| Occupation | Geneticist; Agricltural botanist |
| Research field | Mycology |
| Plant genetics |
| Agriculture |
| Botany |
| Activity | Education:
Cheltenham Grammar School; Emmanuel College, Cambridge; Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge MA
Career:
Accompanied a small expedition to Brazil, Mexico, and the West Indies to study rubber production (1896); university demonstrator in botany under Harry Marshall Ward (FRS 1888), Cambridge, investigating fungi and developing a new method of handling rubber latex (1898); lecturer in agricultural botany, in the newly established school of agriculture in the University of Cambridge, elevated to professorship (1899-1931); retired (1931).
Honours:
Kt 1925 |
| Membership category | Fellow |
| Date of election | 07/05/1914 |
| Age at election | 40 |
| Proposer | Francis Wall Oliver |
| Hans Friedrich Gadow |
| Alfred Daniel Hall |
| Reginald Crundall Punnett |
| Otto Stapf |
| David Prain |
| Frederick Frost Blackman |
| Francis Darwin |
| Horace Tabberer Brown |
| William Bateson |
| Albert Charles Seward |
| Royal Society activity | Medals and prizes:
Darwin Medal 1920 |
| Relationships | Parents: Henry John Biffen, headmaster of the Christ Church higher grade school at Cheltenham, and Mary.
Spouse: (m. 1899) Mary (d. 1948), eldest daughter of Edmund Hemus of Holdfast Hall, Upton upon Severn. |
| Published works | RCN 16695 |
| General context | Distinguished for his mycological investigations and for researches into the breeding of cereals.
Founded the Journal of Agricultural Science.
Expert in the identification of British wild flora in photography and in archaeology. |
| Royal Society Obituary or Memoir | Click to view (may be contained within a meeting notice, presidential address or list of death notices) |
| Sources | Sources:
Bulloch's Roll; DNB
Obituaries:
Obituary Notices of Fellows of the Royal Society 1950-1951 vol 7 pp 9-25, plate, by F L Engledow |
| Virtual International Authority File | http://viaf.org/viaf/290924917 |
| Royal Society code | NA1725 |
| Reference number | Title | Date |
| RR/16/173 | Referee's report by Francis Darwin, on report submitted to the Evolution Committee, II, regarding three papers 'Experimental Studies in the Physiology of Heredity' by William Bateson, E R Saunders and Reginald Crundall Punnett, 'Experiments with Poulty' by C C Hurst, and 'Some Experiments on Wheat-breeding' by Rowland Harry Biffen | September 1904 |
| RR/16/171 | Referee's report by Francis Galton, on three papers 'Experimental Studies in the Physiology of Heredity' by William Bateson, E R Saunders and Reginald Crundall Punnett, 'Experiments with Poulty' by C C Hurst, and 'Some Experiments on Wheat-breeding' by Rowland Harry Biffen | August 1904 |
| NLB/51/10 | Copy letter from Robert William Frederick Harrison, Assistant Secretary of the Royal Society to Professor Rowland Biffen FRS, St Catherine's College, Camrbidge | 19 November 1914 |
| NLB/60/88 | Copy letter from Edwin Deller, Assistant Secretary of the Royal Society; to Professor [Rowland Harry] Biffen, FRS | 9 December 1920 |
| NLB/52/325 | Copy letter from [Robert William Frederick Harrison, Assistant Secretary of the Royal Society]; to [Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society] | 3 July 1914 |
| RR/20/48 | Referee's report by Rowland Harry Biffen, on a paper 'Breeding experiments which show the hybridisation and mutation are independant phenomena' by Reginald Ruggles Gates | July 1913 |
| RR/27/33 | Referee's report by Rowland Harry Biffen, on a paper 'A quantitative investigation of the bacterial and protozoan population of the soil, with an account of the protozoan fauna' by D Ward Cutler, Lettice M Crump and H Sandon | July 1922 |
| RR/35/140 | Referee's report by Rowland Harry Biffen, on a paper 'The agricultural value of rainfall in the tropics' by H Martin Leake | July 1927 |
| NLB/63/99 | Copy letter from William Bate Hardy, Secretary of the Royal Society and FRS; to Professor [Rowland Harry] Biffen, FRS | 29 June 1922 |
| NLB/58/894 | Copy letter from Edwin Deller, Assistant Secretary of the Royal Society; to Professor [Rowland Harry] Biffen, FRS | 30 June 1920 |
| NLB/59/702 | Copy letter from William Bate Hardy, Secretary of the Royal Society; to Professor [Rowland Harry] Biffen, FRS | 4 November 1920 |
| EC/1914/04 | Biffen, Sir Rowland Harry: certificate of election to the Royal Society | |
| RR/16/172 | Letter from Sidney Frederic Harmer, to Robert William Frederick Harrison, regarding three papers 'Experimental Studies in the Physiology of Heredity' by William Bateson, E R Saunders and Reginald Crundall Punnett, 'Experiments with Poulty' by C C Hurst, and 'Some Experiments on Wheat-breeding' by Rowland Harry Biffen | 19 August 1904 |
| NLB/55/577 | Copy letter from Robert William Frederick Harrison, Assistant Secretary of the Royal Society; to William Foster Esq., C.I.E., Registar & Superintendent of Records, India Office | 17 June 1918 |
| RR/16/175 | Referee's report by Walter Frank Raphael Weldon, on reports to the Evolution Committee, II, regarding three papers 'Experimental Studies in the Physiology of Heredity' by William Bateson, E R Saunders and Reginald Crundall Punnett, 'Experiments with Poulty' by C C Hurst, and 'Some Experiments on Wheat-breeding' by Rowland Harry Biffen | October 1904 |