Departments in the Science Area

Darlington Link

Cyril Dean Darlington (1903-1981) was educated at London University. In 1923 he joined the John Innes Horticultural Institute as a volunteer, rising to become its director in 1939. His academic interest lay in chromosomes, the gene, and evolution. In 1953 he was elected to the Sherardian Professorship of Botany at Magdalen College. He was Keeper of the Botanic Garden, and was actively involved in the creation of the Genetic Garden and the acquisition of the Nuneham Courtenay Arboretum. Darlington was heavily involved in the extension of the teaching of genetics in the University, and in the establishment of the School of Human Sciences.

Le Gros Clark Place

Sir Wilfred Le Gros Clark (1895-1971) was Head of the Department of Human Anatomy and Dr Lee's Professor of Anatomy from 1934 to 1962 and Director, MRC Unit for Research on Climatic and Working Efficiency from 1948 to 1962. His main interest was the problem of man's relationship to the other members of the order of primates, and his works include Early Forerunners of Man (1934) and History of the Primates (1949). He played a part in the exposure of the Piltdown forgery.

Hinshelwood Road

Sir Cyril Hinshelwood (1897-1967) read Chemistry at Balliol College. In 1920 he was elected to a research fellowship at Balliol and in 1921 to a fellowship at Trinity. He became Dr Lee's Professor of Chemistry in 1937. The Encyclopaedia of Oxford describes Hinshelwood as a 'highly gifted tutor, a classical scholar, a writer of excellent English prose and a brilliant linguist, as well as a great chemist'. In 1956, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, with Nikolay Semenov, 'for their researches into the mechanism of chemical reactions'.

Dorothy Hodgkin Road

Dorothy Hodgkin (1910-1994) studied chemistry at Somerville College. After gaining her doctorate from Cambridge, she returned to Somerville as Official Fellow and Tutor in Natural Science, and subsequently became University Lecturer and Demonstrator in 1946, University Reader in X-ray Crystallography in 1956 and Wolfson Research Professor of the Royal Society in 1960. One of her students at Somerville was Margaret Thatcher, former British Prime Minister. She was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1964 for '... her determinations by X-ray techniques of the structures of important biochemical substances'. The molecular structures that she determined include those of penicillin, vitamin Bl2, vitamin B12 coenzyme and insulin.

Robinson Close

Robert Robinson (1886-1975) was appointed Waynflete Professor of Chemistry and Fellow of Magdalen College in 1930, a post he held until his retirement in 1955 when he became an Honorary Fellow of the College. He was awarded the Nobel for Chemistry in 1947 'for his investigations on plant products of biological importance, especially the alkaloids'.

Sherard Road

William Sherard (1659-1728), the botanist and founder of the Sherardian Professorship of Botany, was a Fellow of St John's from 1677 to 1703. Sherard's publications include Introduction to Hermann's Paradisus Batavus. He has a plant named after him in the Linnean classification.

Sherrington Road

Sir Charles Scott Sherrington (1857-1952) was Waynflete Professor of Physiology and Fellow of Magdalen College from 1913 to his retirement in 1936. He dedicated his life to the study of the nervous system, but his interests also included bacteriology, the metabolism of the body in cancer, histology, and the formation of scar tissue. In 1932, Sir Charles was, with Lord Edgar Adrian, awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology for their fundamental studies of the nervous system.

Sibthorp Road

Dr John Sibthorp (1758-1796), the author of Flora Graeca, was born in Oxford and studied at Lincoln College. In 1784 he succeeded his father Humphrey as Sherardian Professor of Botany, a post he held until his death. He founded the Sibthorpian Professorship of Rural Economy, the first agricultural chair in an English university.

Sidgwick Close

Nevil Sidgwick (1893-1952), a graduate of Christ Church, was Fellow of Lincoln College from 1901 to 1948. A chemist, he carried out important work on atomic bonding during the 1920s. His publications include Organic Chemistry of Nitrogen (1910), The Electronic Theory of Valency (1927), Some Physical Properties of the Covalent Link in Chemistry (1933), and The Chemical Elements and their Compounds (2 vols., 1950).