When I worked for the University of St Andrews in 2010, I created an interactive website for the Folk Fae Fife project, which was a celebration of science in the region. Sadly, the partnerships changed and the content was removed. Still, this powerpoint lists some of the great scientists and innovators from Fife. I didn't want to see this information lost.

1. Fife’s Scientists & Innovators
Folk Fae Fife
The Fife Science Festival
Dr LWS Petznick

2. Fife’s Scientists &
Innovators
• Dr LWS Petznick
•Born in Fife
•Studied in Fife
•Worked in Fife
•Taught in Fife
Folk Fae Fife
The Fife Science Festival

3. Fife’s Scientists &
Innovators
• Dr LWS Petznick
• Methodology
• How these people were identified
• The Royal Society
• Nobel Prize winners
• Internet
Folk Fae Fife
The Fife Science Festival

4. Fife’s Scientists &
Innovators
• Dr LWS PetznickFolk Fae Fife
The Fife Science Festival
Prof. William Fischer Mary Somerville

5. Fife’s Scientists &
Innovators
• Dr LWS Petznick
Mary Somerville
1780-1872, Burntisland
The term scientist was inspired by
Somerville’s writings. So, in a sense, she
was the first scientist. When social
conventions to family allowed, she wrote
articles about science and earned
international acclaim. She and Caroline
Herschel were the first two female
members of the Royal Astronomical Society,
as such they were pioneers for women
scientists. Somerville College, Oxford, and a
lunar crater are named in her honour.
Folk Fae Fife
The Fife Science Festival
Courtesy of Oxford University, 11137632

6. Fife’s Scientists &
Innovators
• Dr LWS Petznick
Elizabeth Garrett Anderson
9 June 1836 – 17 Dec 1917,
University of St Andrews student, St Andrews
Anderson was a pioneer in medicine. She was the first
female to study medicine at St Andrews University in
1862, but the furore surrounding this lead to the
revocation of her place. Even so, in 1865 she became
the first licensed female to practice medicine in Britain
Folk Fae Fife
The Fife Science Festival

7. Fife’s Scientists &
Innovators
• Dr LWS Petznick
Dr. Louisa Garrett Anderson,
CBE
28 July 1873 – 11 Nov 1943,
St Leonards School alumna, St Andrews
Daughter of Elizabeth Anderson, Louisa Anderson also
made a name for herself as a physician in Britain. Her
work establishing hospitals operated by women during
World War I was pioneering.
Folk Fae Fife
The Fife Science Festival

8. Fife’s Scientists &
Innovators
• Dr LWS Petznick
Sir James W. Black
14 June 1924 - 22 March 2010, University of St
Andrews alumnus
Black’s pharmaceutical strengths earned him a
Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1988 for his work to
develop drugs. Black is responsible for both
propranolol and cimetidine, two types of beta-
blockers used to prevent heart failure. He
attended Beath High School in Cowdenbeath and
then University College of The University of St
Andrews.
Folk Fae Fife
The Fife Science Festival

9. Fife’s Scientists &
Innovators
• Dr LWS Petznick
John Goodsir
20 March 1814 – 6 March 1867,
University of St Andrews alumnus
born Anstruther
After studying at St Andrews, Goodsir
apprenticed in dentistry in Edinburgh where he
later taught anatomy. In Anstruther, he wrote
an influential essay on Teeth (1840), and his
"Anatomical Memoirs” were published
posthumously. His work allegedly led to a
restoration of Edinburgh’s reputation for
medicine.
Folk Fae Fife
The Fife Science Festival
From Gray’s Anatomy

10. Fife’s Scientists &
Innovators
• Dr LWS Petznick
Sir David Jack
Born 22 Feb 1924, in Markinch
As a pharmacologist, Jack developed major drugs.
Salbutamol (Ventolin®), an asthma inhaler, and
ranitidine (Zantac®), a treatment for peptic ulcers,
are credited to him. His contributions to medicine
have saved millions of lives in Fife and across the
world.
Folk Fae Fife
The Fife Science Festival

11. Fife’s Scientists &
Innovators
• Dr LWS Petznick
Edward Jenner
17 May 1749 – 26 Jan 1823,
University of St Andrews alumnus
Jenner, most noted for his development of a
smallpox vaccine, is considered to be the
“father of immunology”. Prior to his
pioneering smallpox treatment, there had
been no immunizations against disease. He
earned his M.D. from St Andrews in 1792.
Folk Fae Fife
The Fife Science Festival

12. Fife’s Scientists &
Innovators
Arthur Masterman
1869-1941,
University of St Andrews alumnus,
research fellow then lecturer
Masterman was a zoologist who wrote the
Elementary Textbook on Zoology (1901) and
co-wrote with William Carmichael McIntosh
(q.v), The Life-Histories of the British Marine
Food Fishes (1897). He became a Fellow of the
Royal Society in 1915. His portrait is in the
National Portrait Gallery in London.
Folk Fae Fife
The Fife Science Festival
Professor William Carmichael M’Intosh, FRS
1838-1931, University of St Andrews
alumnus & Professor, born in St Andrews
M’Intosh co-wrote with Arthur Masterman
(q.v), The Life-Histories of the British Marine
Food Fishes (1897). He was director of the
University of St Andrews Museum and the
Gatty Marine Laboratory. He was influential
in founding a modern medical school at St
Andrews and in creating a botanic garden
there. He became a Fellow of the Royal
Society in 1877.

13. Fife’s Scientists &
Innovators
• Dr LWS Petznick
James Bell Pettigrew, FRS
26 May 1832 - 30 Jan 1908,
University of St Andrews Professor
Pettigrew was last occupant of the Chandos chair of
medicine and anatomy, as it was renamed after his
death. He published numerous books on anatomy
and biology, including Animal Locomotion (1874) and
Design in Nature (1908). The Bell Pettigrew Museum
at the University of St Andrews was named in his
honour.
Folk Fae Fife
The Fife Science Festival

14. Fife’s Scientists &
Innovators
• Dr LWS Petznick
Sir D'Arcy Wentworth
Thompson
CB FRS FRSE
2 May 1860 – 21 June 1948,
University of St Andrews professor, St Andrews
His contributions to biology, natural history and
mathematics illustrate the breadth of his knowledge and the
inter-relationship between scientific disciplines. Famous for
his On Growth and Form (1917), he showed how physical
laws of mechanics influence the form of living organisms.
Folk Fae Fife
The Fife Science Festival

15. Fife’s Scientists &
Innovators
James Carmichael Smyth
1741 - 18 June 1821, Balmedie, Fife
Smyth discovered a method for the prevention of
contagion in cases of fever using nitrous acid gas,
and wrote several treatises on this subject and on
other medical matters. Served George III as one of
his physicians.
Folk Fae Fife
The Fife Science Festival

16. Fife’s Scientists &
Innovators
• Dr LWS Petznick
Sir James Dewar
20 Sept 1842 – 27 Mar 1923,
born in Kincardine-on-Forth
Dewar specialized in chemistry and physics. He was
the first Britain to earn a Lavoisier Medal in 1904. His
principle contributions to science involved liquid
oxygen and liquid hydrogen, and he invented the
Dewar flask, which is like a thermos, and cordite, a
smokeless explosive.
Folk Fae Fife
The Fife Science Festival

17. Fife’s Scientists &
Innovators
• Dr LWS Petznick
CELLUCOMP
Dr Eric Whale and Dr David Hepworth
Burntisland, now
With Dr Hepworth, Whale has developed nano-
fibres from carrots, which have a unique set of
characteristics—strength, flexibility and lightness.
They currently have used the curran material for
fishing rods but project that the material may have
numerous applications, including battleships.
This is SUSTAINABLE ENERGY
Folk Fae Fife
The Fife Science Festival

18. Fife’s Scientists &
Innovators
• Dr LWS Petznick
Sir David Brewster, LLD, FRS
1781-1868, University of St Andrews Professor
Eminent physicist, Brewster was a pioneer in optical
crystallography and mineralogy. He invented the
kaleidoscope in 1816. He discovered Gmelinite, Levyne
and Epistilibite, all zeolites, and the mineral Brewsterite
is named in his honour. “A refracted beam of light is
plane-polarized if the reflected and refracted beams are
perpendicular to each other” is Brewster’s Law.
Folk Fae Fife
The Fife Science Festival

19. Fife’s Scientists &
Innovators
James Gregory
Nov 1638 – Oct 1675,
University of St Andrews professor
Gregory’s contributions to mathematics
led to his placement as the first Regius
Chair for Mathematics at St Andrews by
Charles II. Often compared to Isaac
Newton, Gregory made many advances in
trigonometry, discovering infinite series
representations for several trigonometric
functions. He also described the first
reflecting telescope. As he lacked the skill
to manufacture his design, it was a decade
before the first Gregorian telescope was
produced by Robert Hooke.
Folk Fae Fife
The Fife Science Festival

20. Fife’s Scientists &
Innovators
• Dr LWS Petznick
John Napier of
Merchiston
1550 – 4 Apr 1617,
University of St Andrews alumnus
Napier was a mathematician, physicist,
astronomer and astrologer who was born in
Edinburgh and studied at St Andrews. He is most
famous as the inventor of logarithms. He
published Mirifici logarithmorum canonis
descriptio in 1614 and consistently used a
decimal point.
Folk Fae Fife
The Fife Science Festival

21. Fife’s Scientists &
Innovators
• Dr LWS Petznick
James David Forbes,
FRS
20 April 1809 – 31 Dec 1868,
University of St Andrews Principal
Forbes worked extensively on the conduction of
heat, seismology and glaciology. He was the
first to describe mathematically the behaviour
of a seismic instrument in an "earthquake". A
series of earthquakes in Comrie, Perthshire led
to his invention of a seismometer in 1844.
Folk Fae Fife
The Fife Science Festival

22. Fife’s Scientists &
Innovators
• Dr LWS Petznick
Sir John Leslie
10 Apr 1766 – 3 Nov 1832,
Largo, Leven and
University of St Andrews alumnus
Leslie gave the first modern account of
capillary action in 1802 and froze water
using an air-pump in 1810, the first
artificial production of ice. In 1804, he
experimented with radiant heat using a
cubical vessel filled with boiling water,
showing that that radiation was greatest
from the black side and negligible from
the polished side. The apparatus is known
as a Leslie cube.
Folk Fae Fife
The Fife Science Festival

23. Fife’s Scientists &
Innovators
• Dr LWS Petznick
Wilson Sibbett, FRS, CBE
Working now,
University of St Andrews Professor
Sibbett is a pioneer of ultra-fast lasers, which are
rapid pulses of light that last only a few
femtoseconds and which have important
applications for medicine. Sibbett was Scotland’s
first chief advisor on science and remains the
Wardlaw Professor of Physics at the University of
St Andrews.
Folk Fae Fife
The Fife Science Festival

24. Fife’s Scientists &
Innovators
• Dr LWS Petznick
Sir Robert Alexander
Watson-Watt, KCB, FRS,
FRAeS
13 Apr 1892 – 5 Dec 1973,
University of St Andrews alumnus
Watson-Watt is most noted for developing radar [radio
detection and ranging] at Bawdsey Manor. Born in Brechin,
he studied at University College in Dundee, then part of the
University of St Andrews. Professor William Peddie
encouraged Watson-Watt to study wireless telegraphy,
which is how radio was then known.
Folk Fae Fife
The Fife Science Festival

25. Fife’s Scientists &
Innovators
• Dr LWS Petznick
Alexander Bruce,
2nd Earl of Kincardine FRS
1629-1681, Culross
Bruce was a judge and politician, but he is credited
for inventing the pendulum clock in collaboration
with Christiaan Huygens. It was vastly superior to
verge clocks and used gravity to measure time.
Pendulum clocks were the main timekeepers until
the 1930s. Bruce was a founding member of the
Royal Society.
Folk Fae Fife
The Fife Science Festival

26. Fife’s Scientists &
Innovators
• Dr LWS Petznick
William Bald
1789–1857, Burntisland
The Fife cartographer, surveyor & civil
engineer worked mainly in Ireland &
Scotland. His work on the Antrim Coast Road
was heralded by the David Orr of the
Institution of Civil Engineers as "an
immeasurable legacy to the people of the
Glens of Antrim...[Bald] created one of the
finest tourist routes in the world".
Folk Fae Fife
The Fife Science Festival
www.irondonkey.com

27. Fife’s Scientists &
Innovators
• Dr LWS Petznick
James Bowman Lindsay
8 Sept 1799 - 29 June 1862, University of St
Andrews alumnus
St Leonards School alumna, St Andrews
Lindsay distinguished himself at St Andrews. In
1829 he became a lecturer at the Watt Institution
in Dundee. Allegedly he invented the incandescent
light bulb, submarine telegraphy and arc welding,
but claims are not well documented though
evidence remains that he “demonstrated a
constant electric light” in Dundee in July 1835,
years before Thomas Edison.
Folk Fae Fife
The Fife Science Festival

28. Fife’s Scientists &
Innovators
• Dr LWS Petznick
Who invented the
lightbulb and when?
Folk Fae Fife
The Fife Science Festival
1809 Humphry Davy ?
18791835 Lindsay?

29. Folk Fae Fife
The Fife Science Festival
Conclusion

30. To learn more please go to
Folk Fae Fife
The Fife Science Festival
www.folkfaefife.org.uk
Please note that the content created with biographies of
Fife’s scientists and innovators was removed.

31. Folk Fae Fife
The Fife Science Festival