astronomy

R. G. E. Murray

R. G. E. Murray is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand R. G. E. Murray rather than just read about it. In short: Robert George Everitt Murray (19 May 1919, Ruislip, West London, England – 18 February 2022, London, Ontario, Canada) was an English-Canadian bacteriologist. He is known for his research on bacterial structure and pathology, as well as bacterial taxonomy.

Key takeaways

R. G. E. Murray belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect R. G. E. Murray to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of R. G. E. Murray from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Robert George Everitt Murray (19 May 1919, Ruislip, West London, England – 18 February 2022, London, Ontario, Canada) was an English-Canadian bacteriologist. He is known for his research on bacterial structure and pathology, as well as bacterial taxonomy.

Biography His father was Everitt George Dunne Murray (1890–1964), who was a professor of bacteriology at Montreal's McGill University from 1930 to 1955. After his childhood years in England and attending boarding school at Summer Fields in Oxford, R. G. E. Murray moved with his family in 1930 to Montreal. He studied at McGill University from 1936 to 1938. He returned to England and graduated from Christ's College, Cambridge in 1941 with a B.A. in pathology and bacteriology. In 1941 R. G. E. Murray was accepted as a medical student at McGill University. In late October 1941 he embarked upon a 3-week voyage in convoy to Canada. He graduated from McGill University in late 1943 with an M.D. and completed his medical internship in 1944, at the Royal Victoria Hospital, Montreal. In 1944 he married Dorothy Marchand, whom he met in 1938, in Salisbury Cove, Maine at a summer course in invertebrate zoology. For less than a year from 1944 to 1945, he served as a captain in the Royal Canadian Army Medical Corps. In the department of bacteriology and immunology of the University of Western Ontario Medical School (now part of the Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry), he became a lecturer in 1945 and was promoted to full professor in 1949. From 1949 to 1974 he was head of the department. As head, he introduced electron microscopy into the department in 1954 and enabled the department to gain an international reputation in bacterial research. He retired as professor emeritus in 1984. From 1948 to 1965 he was chief of the microbiology service of Victoria Hospital in London, Ontario. Murray chaired from 1951 to 1952 the founding committee for the Canadian Society of Microbiologists and from 1951 to 1952 served as the founding president of the society. From 1954 to 1960 he was the founding editor of the Canadian Journal of Microbiology. For the academic year 1972–1973 he was the president of the American Society for Microbiology. From 1991 to 1994 he was the editor-in-chief of the International Journal of Systematic Bacteriology. His father, E. G. D. Murray, was from 1936 to 1964 a member of the board of trustees of Bergey's Manual. After his father's death in 1964, R. G. E. Murray joined the board of trustees and chaired the board from 1976 to 1990. R. G. E. Murray was among the first bacteriologists to advocate that prokaryotes should be "given the rank of superkingdom". He gained an international reputation for his research in bacteriology, including the cytology, structure, function, systematics, and taxonomy of bacteria. He used electron microscopy and biochemical analysis to elucidate bacterial structures, notably S-layers in various bacterial species. He was elected in 1957 a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada (RSC). He received in 1984 the RSC's Flavelle Medal. The Canadian Journal of Microbiology dedicated the April 1988 issue to Murray in recognition of his scientific contributions. He was awarded in 1994 the Bergey Medal for bacterial taxonomy by the board of trustees of Bergey's Manual. He was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada in 1998. He received honorary D.Sc. degrees from four universities. Murray's first wife, Dorothy née Marchand, predeceased him after 40 years of marriage. They had two sons and a daughter. Murray was also predeceased by his second wife, Marion née Luney, after 28 years of marriage. He was predeceased by one of his two sons. He was survived by a son, a daughter, six grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren.

Eponynms Robertmurraya, genus in the family Bacillaceae Deinococcus murrayi, an extremely radiation-resistant bacterial species

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with R. G. E. Murray

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what R. G. E. Murray claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to R. G. E. Murray before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about R. G. E. Murray ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of R. G. E. Murray

In research: R. G. E. Murray appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses R. G. E. Murray in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: R. G. E. Murray is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1919 births, 2022 deaths, Academic staff of the University of Western Ontario, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for R. G. E. Murray outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

Ask Teacher Smith questions about this articleOpens your AI tutor with a question about “R. G. E. Murray” →

Affiliate

Preply — study more efficiently by working with a personal tutor. 50% off.

How to study R. G. E. Murray in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what R. G. E. Murray means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain R. G. E. Murray out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is R. G. E. Murray in simple terms?

Why does R. G. E. Murray matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study R. G. E. Murray?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on R. G. E. Murray.