Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh

Thomas_Murray_MacRobert

Thomas Murray MacRobert (4 April 1884, in Dreghorn, Ayrshire – 1 November 1962, in Glasgow) was a Scottish mathematician. He became professor of mathematics at the University of Glasgow and introduced the MacRobert E function, a generalisation of the generalised hypergeometric series.

William_Cullen

William Cullen (; 15 April 1710 – 5 February 1790) was a Scottish physician, chemist and agriculturalist, and professor at the Edinburgh Medical School. Cullen was a central figure in the Scottish Enlightenment: He was David Hume's physician, and was friends with Joseph Black, Henry Home, Adam Ferguson, John Millar, and Adam Smith, among others.
He was President of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow (1746–47), President of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh (1773–1775) and First Physician to the King in Scotland (1773–1790). He also assisted in obtaining a royal charter for the Philosophical Society of Edinburgh, resulting in the formation of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1783.Cullen was a beloved teacher, and many of his students became influential figures. He kept in contact with many of his students, including Benjamin Rush, a central figure in the founding of the United States of America; John Morgan, who founded the first medical school in the American colonies, the Medical School at the College of Philadelphia; William Withering, the discoverer of digitalis; Sir Gilbert Blane, medical reformer of the Royal Navy; and John Coakley Lettsom, the philanthropist and founder of the Medical Society of London.Cullen's student and later rival John Brown developed the medical system known as Brunonianism, which conflicted with Cullen's. The competition between the two systems had knock-on effects in how patients were treated worldwide, especially in Italy and Germany, during the end of the eighteenth and beginning of the nineteenth century.Cullen was also an author. He published a number of medical textbooks, mostly for the use of his students, though they were popular in Europe and the American colonies. His best known work was First Lines of the Practice of Physic, which was published in a series of editions between 1777 and 1784, and inventing the basis of modern refrigeration.

Sir_Alexander_Boswell,_1st_Baronet

Sir Alexander Boswell, 1st Baronet, (9 October 1775 – 27 March 1822) was a Scottish poet, antiquary, and songwriter. The son of Samuel Johnson's friend and biographer James Boswell of Auchinleck, he used the funds from his inheritance to pay for a seat in Parliament and then successfully sought a baronetcy for his political support of the government. However, his finances subsequently collapsed and he was revealed as the author of violent attacks on a rival. Boswell died as a result of wounds received in a duel.

William_MacTaggart

Sir William MacTaggart, (1903–1981) was a Scottish painter known for his landscapes of East Lothian, France, Norway and elsewhere. He is sometimes called William MacTaggart the Younger to distinguish him from his grandfather, the painter William McTaggart.

Hector_Laing,_Baron_Laing_of_Dunphail

Hector Laing, Baron Laing of Dunphail, (12 May 1923 – 21 June 2010) was a British businessman.
The son of Hector Laing Sr and Margaret Norrie Grant was educated at the Loretto School in Musselburgh and Jesus College, Cambridge. Laing served as a tank commander in the Scots Guards between 1942 and 1947, and reached the rank of a Captain. He was mentioned in dispatches and awarded the US Bronze Star during campaign in France in 1944–45.Laing followed his father, and grandfather Sir Alexander Grant, inventor of the digestive biscuit, into the McVitie & Price biscuit business and in 1947 became a director. The company merged to form United Biscuits, and Laing became managing director in 1964 and served as chairman from 1972 to 1990.From 1973 to 1991, Laing was Director of the Bank of England. He was Director of the Exxon Corporation from 1984 to 1994.
Laing married Marian Clare, daughter of John Emilius Laurie in 1950; they had three sons.
He was knighted in 1978 and was created a Conservative life peer as Baron Laing of Dunphail, of Dunphail in the County of Moray on 8 February 1991. Laing was also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.
Laing also received an Honorary Doctorate from Heriot-Watt University in 1986.Lord Laing died on 21 June 2010 after a short illness.
Lady Laing died in 2020.