High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Robert Cecil Olby (born in London in 1933) is a research professor in the Department of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Pittsburgh. Formerly at the University of Leeds, UK, Robert Olby is known as a historian of 19th and 20th century biology, his special fields being genetics and molecular biology. He is well known for his work on the history of biology (see list of works at his webpage). He is known outside of biology, having frequently been asked to participate in various commemorations of famous scientific events (example) and to comment on science topics for the mass media (example).