Call for more blue plaques to scientists
FEWER than one in five blue plaques are dedicated to scientists, English Heritage said yesterday as it called for more nominations to correct a public “bias” for the arts.
The charity runs the commemorative scheme honouring historical figures who lived or worked in London.
But it said “lower profile” scientists were not as widely recognised as writers and musicians.
English Heritage is calling on the public, who nominate potential plaque recipients, to correct this cultural slant towards the arts.
Only 15 per cent of the more than 900 memorials attached to buildings across London are dedicated to people of science.
Rebekah Higgitt, who sits on the panel which decides future commemorations, said: “We have relatively few blue plaques to physicists, chemists, biologists and other s cientific f i gures, reflecting the scheme’s historic bias towards celebrati ng t he arts over t he sciences.”
English Heritage has cited the fact that scientists “tend to have a lower profile” than creatives like Ian Fleming and Charles Dickens, the writers, who are honoured. The work of biologists, chemists and physicists may not “attract biographers in the way that sometimes even fairly minor novelists and poets do”, said Ms Higgitt.
A blue plaque has been erected in Putney for Abdus Salam, the Pakistani Nobel l aureate and theoretical physicist, whose work on electroweak theory aided the discovery of the Higgs
‘We have relatively few blue plaques to scientists, reflecting a bias towards arts’
boson “God particle”.
English Heritage wants this unveiling to be a starting point for increasing its representation of overlooked figures who have made a name in science but not in the broader culture.
Ms Higgitt said: “We want to see more blue plaques to such brilliant and inspiring figures as Abdus Salam but we need the public’s help.”
She has urged the public to send nominations focusing on scientific figures and their associated buildings to “help us mark their achievements and links to the city”.