Three Birkbeck academics celebrated in new research book

Universities UK celebrates three Birkbeck academics in its recently published book Eureka UK, which features 50 years of life-changing research highlighting 100 major discoveries, developments and inventions by academics at universities throughout the UK.

Diana Warwick, Chief Executive of the higher education action group, said: “Universities UK has worked with universities across the country to produce a lasting testament to the brilliant thinkers whose contributions have changed lives around the world.”

The book says of Birkbeck’s President, Emeritus Professor Eric Hobsbawm (School of History, Classics and Archaeology), pictured, ‘The sheer breadth and popularity of his work marks him out as one of the world’s greatest historians. Hobsbawm has charted the complex patterns and mechanisms that transformed the world during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. His commentaries cover 240 years of modern history, spanning the industrial revolution, the rise of the British Empire, the world wars and the Cold War, the rise and fall of Communism and the inexorable growth of capitalism in the world of the period.’

Architectural historian Professor Sir Nikolaus Pevsner (School of History of Art, Film and Visual Media), who was based at Birkbeck, produced architectural guides which have been described as ‘the greatest endeavour of popular architectural scholarship in the world,’ says Eureka UK. ‘They opened the eyes of a generation to the design and history of great buildings in Britain and Ireland. It took him 25 years to complete the volumes, which cover all the English counties. New editions of the guides continue to be published today.’

Rosalind Franklin (School of Crystallography) worked with Crick, Watson and Wilkins on revealing the structure of DNA, where her ground breaking X-ray images made the discovery possible. After her DNA work Franklin came to Birkbeck where she worked on the tobacco mosaic virus. Having begun work on the polio virus she was diagnosed with cancer, from which she died at the age of 37.

“Eureka UK sets out some of the most inspiring and dramatic breakthroughs in academic research, from unlocking DNA to the discovery of pulsars, from the first programmable computer to the artificial cows combating disease in Africa,” says Diana Warwick. “The examples span the medical, physical and social sciences as well as the arts and humanities – and demonstrate both the unpredictable nature of research and the length of time it can take to measure its success.”

She adds: “We also hope Eureka UK will inspire young people to go to university and spark an interest in discovery.”

For more details about research at Birkbeck, click here