LibGuides: History of Science and Technology: A Research Guide: Biographical Resources on Scientists

Biographical Databases

American National Biography Online This link opens in a new window
The American National Biography offers portraits of more than 18,700 men and women -- from all eras and walks of life -- whose lives have shaped the nation.

Use: License agreement restricts access to one user at a time.

Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society
November 1955 - December 2016 [note: 1 year embargo on free access]
Obituaries of Royal Society Fellows first appeared in 1830, in Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Initially obituaries were read at the Anniversary meeting and were printed within the record of that meeting. From 1859 they appeared in a separate section at the back.
Obituary Notices of Fellows of the Royal Society were published from 1932 as a continuation of these tributes. They then developed from being relatively short, traditional obituaries to biographical essays of record. This change was duly recognized by a change of title to Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society in 1955, when the new annual carried life studies of Albert Einstein, Enrico Fermi and Alan Turing.
Content since 1932 can be browsed below. To find specific obituaries we recommend using the ‘Advanced Search’ and entering the Fellow’s name in the ‘Title’ box. For more information and search tips please visit our information for readers page, which outlines where all obituaries published since 1830 can be found.

Vincent Voice LIbrary at MSU This link opens in a new window
The G. Robert Vincent Voice Library is a collection of over 100,000 hours of spoken word recordings, dating back to 1888. The collection includes the voices of over 500,000 persons from all walks of life. Political and cultural leaders and minor players in the human drama are captured and cataloged to serve the research needs of a local, national and international user base. Clients include students and faculty of Michigan State University, other scholars and researchers, broadcasting networks, news agencies and film, video, and Web production companies.

Biographical References

American men & women of science: A biographical directory of today's leaders in physical, biological, and related sciences, 23rd ed. [electronic resource]
This edition profiles living persons in the physical and biological fields, as well as public health scientists, engineers, mathematicians, statisticians, and computer scientists.
Q141 .A47 Online

Asimov's Biographical Encyclopedia of Science and Technology, 2nd ed. by Isaac Asimov
Call Number: Q141 .A74 1982 c.2
ISBN: 0385177712
Publication Date: 1982-06-16
Using a chronological arrangement, Asimov outlines the accomplishments of 1,510 scientists, past and present.
The Biographical Dictionary of Scientists by Roy Porter (Editor); Marilyn B. Ogilvie (Editor)
Call Number: Q141 .B528 2000 v.1 &2; Reference Center and Main
ISBN: 0195216636
Publication Date: 2000-05-18
The third edition of this acclaimed reference work offers more than 1,280 concise, authoritative portraits of the men and women of science throughout the ages. Covering every field--from astronomy to zoology, the pure sciences as well as engineering and technology.
v. 1. Abbe to Leavitt -- v. 2. Lebedev to Zworykin.
Biographical Dictionary of the History of Technology by Ian McNeil (Editor); Lance Day (Editor)
Call Number: Reference - T39 .B49 1996
ISBN: 0415060427
Publication Date: 1995-12-15
This Biographical Dictionary seeks to put the world of technology in the context of those who have made the most important contribution to it. For the first time information has been gathered on the people who have made the most significant advances in technology. From ancient times to the present day, the major inventors, discoverers and entrepreneurs from around the world are profiled, and their contribution to society explained and assessed. Structure The Dictionary presents descriptive and analytical biographies of its subjects in alphabetical order for ease of reference. Each entry provides detailed information on the individual's life, work and relevance to their particular field.
Biographical Encyclopedia of Scientists, 3rd ed. by John Daintith (Editor)
Call Number: Reference - Q141 .B53 2009
ISBN: 9781420072716
Publication Date: 2008-08-18
This comprehensive compendium brings together 2400 scientists who have made important contributions to the wide world of science. Rather than a Who's-Who style laundry list, this user-friendly resource provides essential biographical information and focuses on scientific achievement. Indeed, it is as much a book about science as it is about the notable scientists who comprise the field.

Complete dictionary of scientific biography [electronic resource]
Provides information on the history of science through articles on the professional lives of scientists. All periods of science from classical antiquity to modern times are represented.
Q141 .C65 2008 Online

Dreamers, Visionaries, and Revolutionaries in the Life Sciences by Oren Harman; Michael Dietrich What are the conditions that foster true novelty and allow visionaries to set their eyes on unknown horizons? What have been the challenges that have spawned new innovations, and how have they shaped modern biology? In Dreamers, Visionaries, and Revolutionaries in the Life Sciences, editors Oren Harman and Michael R. Dietrich explore these questions through the lives of eighteen exemplary biologists who had grand and often radical ideas that went far beyond the run-of-the-mill science of their peers.   From the Frenchman Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, who coined the word "biology" in the early nineteenth century, to the American James Lovelock, for whom the Earth is a living, breathing organism, these dreamers innovated in ways that forced their contemporaries to reexamine comfortable truths. With this collection readers will follow Jane Goodall into the hidden world of apes in African jungles and Francis Crick as he attacks the problem of consciousness. Join Mary Lasker on her campaign to conquer cancer and follow geneticist George Church as he dreams of bringing back woolly mammoths and Neanderthals. In these lives and the many others featured in these pages, we discover visions that were sometimes fantastical, quixotic, and even threatening and destabilizing, but always a challenge to the status quo.
Call Number: QH26 .D74 2018 Online
ISBN: 9780226569871
Publication Date: 2018-07-20
How James Watt Invented the Copier: Forgotten inventions of our great scientists [electronic resource] by René Schills ; translated by Andy Brown.
Call Number: T15 .S35513 2012 Online
ISBN: 9781461408604
Publication Date: 2012-01-01
Features 25 different scientists and the ideas which may not have made them famous, but made history. Johannes Kepler -- Robert Hooke -- Edmond Halley -- Daniel Bernoulli -- Benjamin Franklin -- Joseph Priestly -- James Watt -- Edward Jenner -- John Dalton -- Thomas Young -- Justus von Liebig -- Charles Darwin -- William Thompson (Lord Kelvin) -- James Clerk Maxwell -- Alexander Graham Bell -- Hendrik Antoon Lorentz -- Svante Arrhenius -- Pierre Curie -- Walther Nernst -- Albert Einstein -- Harlow Shapley -- Erwin Schrödinger -- Enrico Fermi -- Rosalind Franklin -- George Gamow.
Ladies in the Laboratory? American and British Women in Science, 1800-1900 by Mary R. S. Creese; Thomas M. Creese (Contribution by)
Call Number: Q141 .C69 1998
ISBN: 0810832879
Publication Date: 1998-03-19
A systematic survey and comparison of the work of 19th-century American and British women in scientific research, this book covers the two countries in which women of the period were most active in scientific work and examines all the fields in which they were engaged.
Ladies in the Laboratory II by Mary R. S. Creese; Thomas M. Creese (Contribution by)
Call Number: Q141 .C693 2004
ISBN: 0810849798
Publication Date: 2004-05-17
A fascinating analysis of the work of notable women by national group, giving thorough data comparing the contributions of women in choice fields. Among the women presented are more than a few colorful personalities representative of the entire social scale, from a royal princess to the daughter of a Paris slum shopkeeper. Researchers in the field of women's history and science history will find this indexed volume a valuable resource.
Ladies in the Laboratory III by Mary R. S. Creese; Thomas M. Creese
Call Number: Q141 .C6933 2010
ISBN: 9780810872882
Publication Date: 2010-02-08
In this third volume, author Mary R.S. Creese expands her scope to include the contributions of 19th- and early 20th-century women of South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada.The women whose lives and work are discussed here range from natural history collectors and scientific illustrators of the early and mid years of the 19th century to the first generation of graduates of the new colonial colleges and universities. Rarely acknowledged in publications of the British and European specialists, the contributions of these women nonetheless formed a significant part of the natural history information about extensive, previously unknown regions and their products.Rather than a biographical dictionary or a collection of self-contained essays on individuals from many time periods, Ladies in the Laboratory III is a connected narrative tied into the wider framework of 19th-century science and education.
Ladies in the Laboratory IV by Mary R. S. Creese; Thomas M. Creese (As told to)
Call Number: Q141 .C6934 2015
ISBN: 9781442247413
Publication Date: 2015-03-12
In Ladies in the Laboratory IV, Mary R.S. Creese expands her scope to include the contributions of nineteenth-century women of Imperial Russia. Many of these women believed that science was the key to social progress, and the great advances in scientific research work in which Russians had leading roles made scientific training especially attractive. Featuring biographical sketches of more than 120 women, this volume covers individuals whose scientific research encompassed medicine, chemistry, zoology, botany, and paleontology. Organized into chapters by field, the entries provide details about the personal backgrounds as well as professional achievements of these remarkable women. A well-organized blend of individual life stories and quantitative information, this volume is for everyone interested in nineteenth-century science. The stories of these women make for fascinating reading and serve as a valuable source for those who want to learn more about the history of women in science and medicine as well as nineteenth-century Russian history."

Speeches

Lend Me Your Ears by William Safire (Editor)
Call Number: PN6122 .L4 1992
ISBN: 0393033686
Publication Date: 1992-10-01
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, William Safire presents an anthology of the world's greatest speeches throughout the ages. This book features more than 200 addresses by figures from Demosthenes to Salman Rushdie that have moved millions and shaped history. Lend Me Your Ears begins with an introduction that constitutes a crash course in the art of the orator, with an insider's tricks of the trade.

Representative American speeches
A series of speeches in works from 1937 to current. Vol. 11-46 (1937-1974) in Remote Storage. Vol 47 - present (1975-current) in the MSU Library. Call Number: AC5 .R4 v.[#]
Speech Vault
Online resource to historic speeches and addresses (Albert Einstein is here)
Vital speeches of the day [electronic resource]
(Click on Business Source Complete to get the full-text resource, from 1934 to today)
For example, the search on the terms epistemology and science yielded the following two transcripts:
•Science And Society. By: Urey, Harold C. Vital Speeches of the Day. 12/15/59, Vol. 26 Issue 5, p141. 4p. Abstract: Presents the text of a speech given by Doctor Harold C. Urey, professor-at-large of chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley on November 2, 1959, which deals with the importance of the practical applications of scientific knowledge to society.
•IT'S THE IDEA OF THE THING. By: Norris, Louis William. Vital Speeches of the Day. 5/15/67, Vol. 33 Issue 15, p468. 5p. Abstract: Presents the text of a speech given by Albion College President Louis William Norris on December 5, 1966, which deals with the subject of dogmas in knowledge, democracy and scientific fact.
Vincent Voice Library Collection
The G. Robert Vincent Voice Library is a collection of over 40,000 hours of spoken word recordings, dating back to 1888. The collection includes the voices of over 100,000 persons from all walks of life. Political and cultural leaders and minor players in the human drama are captured and cataloged to serve the research needs of a local, national and international user base. Clients include students and faculty of Michigan State University, other scholars and researchers, broadcasting networks, news agencies and film, video, and Web production companies.

Additional Guides

Botanists and Plant Scientists

Math Biography Resources

Business Executive Biographies

Biography Websites

ScienceWatch: Interviews from highly cited scientists, journals and institutions
Interviews with highly cited scientists in ISI Thompson journals.
Biography.Com
Browse or search by name or keyword through 25,000 of the greatest lives ever lived, courtesy of the A&E Channel.
Biography.com - Famous Scientists
Biography.com's group 'famous scientists.'
Almanac Biography
Search 30,000 short entries from Infoplease.