George Downing Liveing

George Downing Liveing FRS (21 December 1827 – 26 December 1924) was an English chemist, spectroscopist and university administrator.

Early life He was born in Nayland, Suffolk, the eldest son of Dr. Edward Liveing (1795–1843) and Catherine Mary Downing (1798–1872).

Academic career Liveing was educated at St John's College, Cambridge, completing a BA in the Mathematical Tripos in 1850 and then postgraduate study for the Natural Sciences Tripos, in which he obtained distinction in chemistry and mineralogy; he received a MA in 1853. Later in his life he was awarded an Honorary ScD in 1908. In 1853 St John's College founded for him a College Lectureship in Chemistry and built for his use a Chemical Laboratory behind New Court. Liveing collaborated with James Dewar, who was Jacksonian Professor of Natural Philosophy at Cambridge from 1875 to 1923. Together they published 78 papers on spectroscopic topics.

Personal life In 1860 Liveing and Catherine Ingram married. He died on Boxing Day 1924, aged 97, as the result of being knocked down by a cyclist while walking to his laboratory. He was buried in the Parish of the Ascension Burial Ground in Cambridge, next to his wife who had died in 1888.