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Department of Zoology

 

Members of the Department were saddened to hear of the death of Robert Hinde, who passed away peacefully on 23 December in the Arthur Rank Hospice at the age of 93.

Robert was Royal Society Research Professor, based at the sub-department of animal behaviour, Madingley, from 1963 to 1989 and in a long and extraordinarily distinguished career he became the intellectual giant of Ethology, who not only helped it develop as a scientific discipline but also pioneered its influence on many other fields, including Psychology, Psychiatry, Primatology, Anthropology and (together with his wife Joan Stevenson-Hinde) Human Child Development.

He was the author of 30 books and over 300 scientific papers, and his many distinctions included CBE, FRS, Honorary FBA, Honorary Foreign Associate of the US National Academy of Sciences and both Royal Medal and Croonian lecture and Medal of the Royal Society. He was Master of St John's College, Cambridge from 1989 to 1994.

In recent years his writings included books on biological and psychological approaches to understanding ethics and religious belief. He was also Chair of British Pugwash.

Many members of our department will have been inspired by him and we shall always feel proud that he was our friend and colleague.

Our love and thoughts are with Joan and with their daughters Lara and Camilla (who was a research student here).

There is a tribute to Robert Hinde on the St John's College website - http://www.joh.cam.ac.uk/professor-robert-hinde-1923-2016