Robert Press

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Robert Press, CB, CBE, FRSA (22 February 1915 - 30 August 1984) was a British scientist and career civil servant, involved for almost thirty years in technical aspects of nuclear negotiations. [1]

Educated at Queen's University, Belfast, he was a research physicist at Trinity College, Dublin, from 1938 to 1940 (completing a PhD there on spectroscopic analysis of biological material). [2] [3] After a brief spell teaching, he became a physicist in the government's employment during the Second World War. He was then adviser to the War Council and then, from 1948, the Ministry of Supply. He was an adviser at the British embassy in Washington, DC, from 1951 to 1955 and later worked for the Ministry of Defence. Appointed a chief scientific officer in the Cabinet Office in 1967, he was promoted to Deputy Secretary in 1971; [2] after the resignation of Sir Alan Cottrell as Chief Scientific Adviser in 1974, he assumed responsibility for advising the government on scientific and technological questions, retiring in 1976. [2] [4] He chaired the Council of Science and Technology Institutes from 1978 to 1980. [2]

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References

  1. Solomon Zuckerman, "Dr Robert Press", The Times, 14 September 1984, page 20
  2. 1 2 3 4 "Dr Robert Press", The Times , 3 September 1984, p. 12 Gale   CS203656995.
  3. Enda Leaney, "Press, Robert", Dictionary of Irish Biography , October 2009. doi : 10.3318/dib.007483.v1
  4. "Cabinet Science Adviser Chosen", The Daily Telegraph , 3 April 1974, p. 1. Gale   IO0703831506
Government offices
Preceded by Chief Scientific Adviser to the UK Government
1974–1976
Succeeded by