Norman Davidson
Born
James Norman Davidson

(1911-03-05)5 March 1911
Died11 September 1972(1972-09-11) (aged 61)
CitizenshipBritish
Alma materUniversity of Edinburgh[1]
AwardsFellow of the Royal Society
FRSE
Scientific career
FieldsBiochemistry
InstitutionsUniversity of Aberdeen
University of St Andrews[1]
University of Glasgow

James Norman Davidson CBE PRSE FRS (5 March 1911 – 11 September 1972) was a British biochemist, pioneer molecular biologist and textbook author. The Davidson Building at the University of Glasgow is named for him.[2]

Life

He was the only child of Wilhelmina Ibberson Foote and James Davidson FRSE FSA (1873-1956) a lawyer, Treasurer of the Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland and originally from Aberdeenshire. He was born in Edinburgh on 5 March 1911 and lived in the family home of 30 Bruntsfield Gardens in the south of the city.[3] He was educated locally, at George Watson's College, where he was dux.[4][5]

He then studied Medicine and Organic Chemistry at the University of Edinburgh graduating with a BSc in 1934,[1] MB ChB in 1937, MD in 1939 and a DSc in 1945. The topic of his DSc thesis was biochemical investigations on cellular proliferation.[6]

In 1937/38 he studied under Otto Heinrich Warburg in Berlin-Dahlem. He returned to Scotland in autumn of 1938 to begin lecturing in biochemistry at the University of St Andrews. From 1940 to 1945 he was Senior Lecturer in Biochemistry at the University of Aberdeen.[5]

In 1941 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. His proposers were James Kendall, Ernest Cruickshank, Robert Campbell Garry, and Anderson Gray M'Kendrick.[4] He was Secretary to the Society 1949–1954, Vice President 1955-58 and served two terms as president from 1958 to 1959 and 1964–67.[7] He was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1960.[8]

Davidson was Professor of Biochemistry at the University of Glasgow from 1947 to 1972. In 1949 he appointed Martin Smellie as his assistant.[9]

In 1958 he succeeded George M. Wishart as the Gardiner Professor of Physiology at the University of Glasgow.[10]

He was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1967.

He died of a heart attack in Bearsden in Glasgow on 11 September 1972.[11]

Publications

  • The Biochemistry of Nucleic Acids (1950)

Family

In 1938 he married Morag McLeod (now Dr Morag Davidson). Their children included Rona McLeod MacKie FRSE (b.1940) and Ailsa Morag Campbell FRSE (b.1943).[4]

References

  1. 1 2 3 Neuberger, Albert (January 1997). "James Norman Davidson, 1911-1972". Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society. 19: 280–303. doi:10.1098/rsbm.1973.0011.
  2. ↑ "University of Glasgow :: Story :: Biography of Norman Davidson".
  3. ↑ Edinburgh and Leith Post Office Directory 1910-11
  4. 1 2 3 C D Waterston; A Macmillan Shearer (July 2006). Former Fellows of The Royal Society of Edinburgh, 1783–2002: Part 1 (A–J) (PDF). Royal Society of Edinburgh. ISBN 090219884X. Archived from the original (PDF) on 24 January 2013. Retrieved 18 September 2015.
  5. 1 2 Oxford Dictionary of National Biography: Norman Davidson
  6. ↑ Davidson, J. Norman (1945). "Biochemical investigations on cellular proliferation". {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  7. ↑ James Norman Davidson (1911-72), Professor of Biochemistry, 1947-72, University of Glasgow
  8. ↑ "Glasgow Professor elected FRS". The Herald. Glasgow. 25 March 1960. p. 14. Retrieved 14 November 2017.
  9. ↑ "University of Glasgow :: Story :: Biography of Martin Smellie".
  10. ↑ "University of Glasgow: Chair of Physiological Chemistry". Nature. 160 (4054): 51. 1 July 1947. Bibcode:1947Natur.160S..51.. doi:10.1038/160051c0.
  11. ↑ "University of Glasgow - MyGlasgow - Archive Services - News - Dunaskin News 2002/07 - James Norman Davidson (1911-72), Professor of Biochemistry, 1947-72".
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