Question of the Week: Do you have any scientists in your family?

Question

This week we'll be featuring Michael Faraday in the Connection Finder.  He's one of the most famous scientists of modern times and is often considered as the person who invented electricity.  

Do you have any scientists in your family? 

Comments

(whoops... moved to answer instead of comment)

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Not a one. Just farmers and textile workers.

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Eason Stamps  the fifth great grandfather of Beth.     

Sarah Ann (Eason) Stamps (1770 - 1847)  [his mother]

Timothy Stamps Sr., M.D.   B. 1720 in King George, VA [His Ggf]

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Buckminster Fuller.

Thomas F Meehan (botanist and writer)

Answer 1

 - Well , yes =   Herbert George Andrewartha FAA   =  back to Cornwall, and down again to Tasmania - -     Click = find my genealogical relationship with Herbert.   - - (and also his wife's Uncle  =      Bertram Steele FRS.) - cheers -             

Answer 2

Yes, me!  Do I count?

Comments

I was going to say the same thing! Bioengineer

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Behavioral geneticist here.

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I'm a chemist.  I left that out above.

Answer 3

I'm with Dale!

I have degrees in Computer Science (specifically an MA in Computer Graphics). I was doing PhD research in what was then called Human Factors but is currently called User Interface Engineering or something similar. Gave up the PhD work when told I would have to start over due to it not being a valid field of study and should do something in abstract math instead. I've worked primarily in areas related to computer communications and have worked on TCP/IP implementations and was online then the modern Internet was turned on. I have been a member of IEEE (active in 802.3 and 802.2), ACM, X/Open (now Open Group)  and other related organizations.  I spent most of my working career with Sun Microsystems (later Oracle Corporation) working on operating systems, network protocols and storage related technologies (file systems and management software). I've also done a lot of web development.

Answer 4

Well....

My dad is a dentist. My mom is a retired lab supervisor. She worked on peoples' blood in a lab.

Answer 5

Me!  And my dad (chemist/computer scientist for the National Institutes of Health).  And as an evolutionary biologist I'm happy to report that Charles Darwin is my 8th cousin 9 times removed.  

Answer 6

Me, husband, son-in-law, son, grandson, grandaughter, grandson-in-law. None in the family past though. Daughter's a midwife.

Answer 7

My father, J.B. Gunn, was a physicist.  My great-grandfather, Charles S Meacham, was a chemist (and member of RAC).

Comments

I remember this! JB’s got a Wikipedia article, doesn’t he?

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Yes

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._B._Gunn

Answer 8

Me, too.  My original degree was aerospace engineering and I have two advanced degrees - in mathematics and computer science, respectively.  During my career, I had many roles - plastics engineer, injection mold designer, mathematician, avionics engineer, navigation engineer, systems engineer, RAMT engineer (that's reliability, availability, maintainability, and testability), IETM developer (that's interactive electronic technical manual), software quality manager, LAN/WAN engineer, and after being 21 this long, my memory may be fading so I might have forgotten a few!  Since retiring, I have built a web development business, in which I design, develop, implement, and support exclusively high end database driven websites that are really turnkey information systems that provide all the information needs of small to medium sized businesses and nonprofit organizations.  Professional associations I have belonged to include IEEE, Association of Old Crows, MICA, and the W3C (World Wide Web Consortium), which included participation in development of XML.  I also prepared/presented papers on my work at international W3C sponsored conferences.

My husband also fits this description, having obtained his degree in Aeronatuical Engineering and promptly thereafter joining the United States Air Force.  After a 26 year career as a fighter pilot (including 196 missions over North Vietnam and another 100-or-so over Laos and Cambodia), he started his second career as a weapons systems engineer for a contractor supporting the military.  In retirement, he has taken up building all manner of furniture, mechanical devices, and assorted useful objects, as well as his own originally designed airplane, which he still plans to fly when he is fully recovered from the cardiac arrest he suffered 8 months ago.

Comments

We have some overlap. I'll update my answer. Last assignment basin test engineering.

Answer 9

I have a linguist degree as translator, and the husband of my 5th cousin 3x removed was one of the founding directors of the Max-Planck-Institut of Biophysical Chemistry in Göttingen. I still didn't create his profile here.

Answer 10

An hour ago I would have said 'NO' but as I looked for some sources I came across two articles:

1. Rays show defects

The Mail (Adelaide, SA : 1912 - 1954) Saturday 15 August 1953 p 22 Article

... equipment at Geelong. The scientist. Mr. W. Hemmy, from the Commonwealth Defence Research Laboratories, is ... the films outside and shows up any defects. 

Article describe Gamma Rays used for welding defects which was to be used on a new oil and petrol refinery   AND

2. SLOT MACHINE FOR PAPERS

The Biz (Fairfield, NSW : 1928 - 1972) Wednesday 20 August 1958 p 28 Article

... , Mr. K. Bruce, and Mr. Peter Hemmy, also of Nambucca Heads have patented a newspaper vending machine ...  This went world-wide and previously Mr Peter Hemmy made an Ice -making machine which is in use at Nambucca.

Answer 11

Yes, Miles. Both a meteorologist and a physicist

Answer 12

I have an Aunt that was part of the Manhattan Project.

Comments

I have a cousin who was too! Mary Esther Gaulden

Mags

Answer 13

My uncle spent most of his working life as a food scientist working for Rank Hovis McDougall and a lot of his time was spent developing the fast-action dried yeast that now enables us to use bread machines in the home.  Thank you Geoff!

:Note - my first job after leaving school was based in Faraday Buildings, Queen Victoria Street, London.  So Faraday always sends a something-or-other down my spine!!

Comments

As an avid user of the bread machine, I would like to thank your Uncle Geoff for his contribution to my daily life. I don't buy bread. My bread is a Norwegian rye, a bit of family history, passed down to me from my Swedish/Norwegian grandmother (1900-2000) who got the recipe from her mother, born in Norway in 1871, who got the recipe from her mother, b. 1844. That's as far back as we know, the recipe could be older than that. I am the one who adapted the recipe for use in the bread machine, Grandma taught me how to make it by hand as soon as I was old enough to crawl up on the table and get in the way.

Answer 14

Yes, my daughter who has 4 degrees and is a diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Pathologists.

Answer 15

I do my daughter is a biomedical scientist specialising in blood

Answer 16

Yes. MS and PhD in Zoology from U. Colorado. NIH postdoctoral in neuroanatomy. Academic professor and researcher for 28 years. Grant funding from NSF,NIH, AHA, DoD, USGS. 85+ peer reviewed papers.

My brother earned his PhD in Molecular Biology and Genetics from U. Wisconsin and went into industry, starting 2 biotech companies. He has 30 patents credited to his name.

Both of my daughters have science degrees, one in economics, the other in museum science and anthropology.

Answer 17

Yes.  Dad and my first cousin Edgar Stradtman Long were both metallurgists.  My son is currently a quality-control engineer who works with ultrasound devices.

Answer 18

Yes! My 5th great-grandfather was John Martyn, a botanist and professor at Cambridge. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Martyn_(botanist).  

His son, Thomas Martyn (my 4th great-grandfather) was also a botanist and professor at Cambridge. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Martyn  

Answer 19

Yes - Many. Notably, my mother was a Nuclear Physicist who had top security clearance in the 60s and worked for aerojet contracted to NASA cataloging all the parts for rockets and subs and developing guidance systems.

Answer 20

There were lots of teachers in my family, but I was the only scientist. I have a PhD in pharmacy with a minor in physical chemistry.  My research centered on physico-chemical properties of drug substances rather than their pharmacological properties.  My former graduate students went into teaching and the pharmaceutical industry.  Those in teaching went on to be deans at their institutions and later vice-presidents of their universities.

Comments

Interesting distinction, Keith. Would pharmacokinetic (PK) studies be an intersection of the two?

In the last six years of my professional career, I did both the regulatory compliance and research budget administration for the Emory AIDS Clinical Trials Unit ('04-'08); and, budget and project management for the NIH-funded Atlanta Clinical and Translational Science Institute ('08-'09); and, PK studies often came across my desk. It was a privilege to work with nurses, study coordinators, lab managers and physicians.