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Wilson, James, American agriculturist and cabinet officer

(Encyclopedia)Wilson, James, 1836–1920, American agriculturist and cabinet officer, b. Ayrshire, Scotland. He emigrated to the United States and settled (1851) in Connecticut, later moving (1855) to Tama co., Iow...

Lefkowitz, Robert Joseph

(Encyclopedia)Lefkowitz, Robert Joseph, 1943–, American physician, b. New York City, M.D. Columbia, 1966. Since 1973 Lefkowitz has been a professor at Duke Univ.; he was appointed a Howard Hughes Medical Institut...

MacKinnon, Roderick

(Encyclopedia)MacKinnon, Roderick, 1956–, American biochemist, b. Burlington, Mass., M.D. Tufts Univ., 1982. MacKinnon was on the faculty at Harvard Medical School from 1989–96 and has been a professor at the H...

Parrish, Maxfield

(Encyclopedia)Parrish, Maxfield, 1870–1966, American painter and illustrator, b. Philadelphia; pupil of Howard Pyle. He is known for his original and highly decorative posters, magazine covers, and book illustrat...

Cech, Thomas Robert

(Encyclopedia)Cech, Thomas Robert chĕk [key], 1947–, American microbiologist, b. Chicago, grad. Univ. of California, Berkeley. A professor at the Univ. of Colorado, he discovered that RNA could function as enzym...

Ligne, Charles Joseph, prince de

(Encyclopedia)Ligne, Charles Joseph, prince de shärl zhôzĕfˈ prăNs də lēˈnyə [key], 1735–1814, Austrian field marshal. He belonged to an ancient princely family of Hainaut, in the Austrian Netherlands (n...

Lorenzo di Pietro

(Encyclopedia)Lorenzo di Pietro pyāˈtrō [key], c.1412–1480, Sienese painter, sculptor, and goldsmith, called Il Vecchietta. He painted a group of frescoes and a relic press in the hospital at Siena; four ceili...

Goodman, Nelson

(Encyclopedia)Goodman, Nelson (Henry Nelson Goodman), 1906–98, American philosopher, b. Somerville, Mass., grad. Harvard (Ph.D. 1941). He taught at Tufts (1945–46), the Univ. of Pennsylvania (1946–64), and Br...

despotism

(Encyclopedia)despotism, government by an absolute ruler unchecked by effective constitutional limits to his power. In Greek usage, a despot was ruler of a household and master of its slaves. The title was applied ...

Tudor, Owen

(Encyclopedia)Tudor, Owen, d. 1461, founder of the Tudor dynasty. He belonged to an ancient Welsh family. He was a squire at the court of Henry V, and, probably in 1429, he married Henry's widow, Catherine of Valoi...