Editorial

Welcome to volume 74 of Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society, the first of two volumes to appear in 2023. This edition contains further outstanding memoirs spanning a wide range of the disciplines pursued by Fellows of the Society. Major prize winners include Ian MacDiarmid (Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2000) and Alan Baker (Fields Medal 1970). There are memoirs of two female Fellows, Dame Anne McLaren and Naomi Datta. Notably, Anne McLaren was also the first woman Foreign Secretary of the Society. Knighthoods were also bestowed upon Sir Ian McGregor, Sir Alastair Pilkington and Sir Dai Rees. There is one Foreign Member of the Society, John Casida. There is also a memoir of Margaret Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher of Kesteven, who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990, the first woman British prime minister and the first scientist to hold the post.