Lower-ground floor reopens

Thank you to everyone for your patience last week. The lower-ground floor of the Radcliffe Science Library has now reopened. Our group study rooms, study carrells and Wellbeing Room are now opan and ready for use.

Photograph of Group Study Room 1 showing a desk surrounded by 6 chairs with a screen on the wall.

Group Study room 1 is open and available for bookings.

Unfortunately there is still a small bit of work ongoing on in the lower-ground floor. The break out area and the staircase accessing it will be out of use for Monday and Tuesday of this week. (25 and 26 March).

We apologise for the inconvenience.

RSL Wellbeing Programme HT

Wellbeing during your studies can be affected by many things from your workload, to your accommodation to your relationships. The Oxford SU and the Counselling Service can offer help and advice on some of these big issues.

Sometimes just taking a break and doing something you find fun and relaxing can help with your wellbeing, whether it’s talking with friends, taking a walk or just resting. We recently shared a post about our regular wellbeing programme, feel free to drop into any of those events when they are on, like the Nature Walk on Monday 5 February.

We also have a range of special events from free hot chocolate to Craft events for DPhils coming up. Check out what we have planned in the RSL Wellbeing Calendar HT 2024. There’s also information about other wellbeing activities throughout the libraries on the Bodleian Libraries website. Keep an eye on our social media and posters in the library for updates on what’s coming next.

RSL Portraiture – Abdus Salam

Abdus Salam – Theoretical Physicist Nobel Prize for Physics (1926- 1996) 

Abdus Salam broke many barriers to become the first Muslim Pakistani to win a Nobel Prize for science. He lived in Oxford.

About Abdus Salam:

Further resources:

Find the full list of the pioneering members of the scientific community featured in our portraiture on our previous blog post.

RSL Portraiture – Dame Louise Johnson and Charlotte Trower

Dame Louise Johnson – biophysicist and structural biologist (1940 – 2012)

Louise Johnson is an inspiring female scientist described as one of the pioneering spirits of protein crystallography and structural enzymology, and remembered for her kindness and mentoring.

About Louise Johnson:

 Further resources:

Charlotte Trower – botanical artist (1855-1928)

Charlotte Trower, “a gifted botanical watercolourist”, was known as an amateur botanist. During her time, amateur botany and flower painting were undervalued and not worthy of being part of natural history. Yet, in collaboration with other amateur botanists, her sister Alice and George Claridge Druce, she produced detailed drawings that have contributed to our contemporary knowledge of the flora of the British Isles.

About Charlotte Trower:

About the illustrations:

  • The Oxford Ragwort, 1 May 1907, first illustration produced by Charlotte Trower after she and her sister began their association with G.C.Druce. The original is held in the Sherardian Library of Plant Taxonomy, Bodleian libraries. Shelfmark: Oxford Ragwort MS Sherard 428, f.12.
  • Monkey Orchid 7 June 1907 was produced by Charlotte Trower. The Monkey Orchid was discovered by G.C. Druce. He kept the precise location secret from his collaborators and only revealed the site to the Trower Sisters many years later. The original is held in the Sherardian Library of Plant Taxonomy, Bodleian Libraries. Shelfmark: Monkey Orchid MS Sherard 439, f.27.
  • Search Trower paintings Index (ox.ac.uk)

Find the full list of the pioneering members of the scientific community featured in our portraiture on our previous blog post.

RSL Portraiture – Nikolaas Tinbergen and Oliver Sacks

Nikolaas Tinbergen – ethologist, Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (1907-1988)

We celebrate Nikolaas Tinbergen for his illustrious contributions in the field of ethology alongside his lifelong battle with depression.

About Nikolaas Tinbergen:

 Further resources:

 Oliver Sacks –neurologist and author (1933-2015) 

Oliver Sacks is one of the few scientists whose work became well-known through his published accounts of neurological case stories, particularly the adaptation of his book ‘Awakenings’ into a film starring famous American actors. He was also a man who lived at a time when he had to hide his homosexuality for fear of imprisonment or chemical castration. We are grateful to his foundation for allowing us to include this eminent Oxford alumnus in our portraiture.

About Oliver Sacks:

 Further resources:

Find the full list of the pioneering members of the scientific community featured in our portraiture on our previous blog post.

RSL Portraiture – Edith Bulbring

Edith Bülbring – pharmacologist and smooth-muscle physiologist (1903-1990)

About Edith Bülbring:

 Further resources:

Find the full list of the pioneering members of the scientific community featured in our portraiture on our previous blog post.

RSL Portraiture – John Radcliffe

John Radcliffe

About John Radcliffe:

Further resources:

  • Cranston, D. (2013). John Radcliffe and his legacy to Oxford. Words by Design.  Available in SOLO https://tinyurl.com/4228xdvt
  • Pettis, William. (1715). Some memoirs of the life of John Radcliffe [by W. Pettis.]. (2nd ed.).  Available in SOLO. http://tinyurl.com/2cnw64jh
  • Nias, J. B. (1918). Dr. John Radcliffe: a sketch of his life with an account of his fellows and Foundations. Clarendon Press. Available in SOLO http://tinyurl.com/3bx8cm95

Find the full list of the pioneering members of the scientific community featured in our portraiture on our previous blog post.

RSL Portraiture – Acland Map of Oxford

Acland Map of Oxford 1854

Sir Henry Acland was a physician, educator, and Regius Professor of Medicine at Oxford. One of his main interests was sanitary and public health matters. In 1854, he published his Memoir on the cholera at Oxford, in the year 1854: with considerations suggested by the epidemic. The map indicates areas of three outbreaks in 1832, 1849, and 1854 in Oxford. Very little is known about the identity of the illustrator apart from the notation that his ‘Memoir was drawn by a Lady,’ reflecting the lack of full recognition of female contributions in science in the 19th century.

More about Henry Acland and the map:

  • Fox, R.  (2014, September 25). Acland, Sir Henry Wentworth, first baronet (1815–1900), physician. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. https://doi-org.ezproxy-prd.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/10.1093/ref:odnb/62
  • Acland, H. W. (Henry W. (1856). Memoir on the cholera at Oxford, in the year 1854: with considerations suggested by the epidemic. J. Churchill. Available in SOLO http://tinyurl.com/wx9uhx8b
  • Acland, H. W. (Henry W. (1855). Map of Oxford, to illustrate Dr. Acland’s Memoir on cholera in Oxford in 1854, : showing the localities in which cholera & choleraic diarrhœa occurred in 1854, and cholera in 1832 & 1849; together with the parts of the town described as unhealthy, by Omerod, Greenhill & Allen, and a writer in the Oxford Herald; the parts remedied since the date of their descriptions; the districts still undrained; the parts of the river still contaminated by sewers, in 1855; and the contour levels.. [Map]. J. Churchill. https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/e290f1f9-ef2c-4779-a326-42f79f69a992/

Find the full list of the pioneering members of the scientific community featured in our portraiture on our previous blog post.

RSL Portraiture – Alan Turing

Alan Turing – mathematician, computer scientist (1912-1954)

Alan Turing is remembered for breaking the German naval Enigma Code during World War II, which helped end the war earlier. He is also considered to be the forefather of modern computer science. He faced profound discrimination due to his homosexuality and his life ended tragically.  Alan Turing represents an important LGBT historical figure in science whom we honour in our portraiture.  The University of Oxford is one of the five founding universities of the Alan Turing Institute, the national institute for data science, located at the Oxford Internet Institute in St Giles, Oxford.

About Alan Turing:

Further resources:

Find the full list of the pioneering members of the scientific community featured in our portraiture on our previous blog post.