• Published by Gale

This respected resource is a biographical dictionary of the significant players in the physical, biological and related sciences. Each edition includes biographical entries on nearly 135,000 living scientists, providing birthdate; birthplace; field of specialty; education; honorary degrees; current position; professional and career information; awards; memberships; research information; and e-mail, fax and mailing addresses for each entrant where available. Volume 8 of the set is a comprehensive index listing scientists by field, and by state under field.

"AMWS, now in its 21st edition and 96th year, seems to have escaped the electronic death suffered by many reference titles and continues as a strong, convenient, on-the-shelf set. Its title might well be 'North American,' since the set includes Canadians. It now has entries for more than 129,769 active scientists, 4,000 new to this edition, and refers to the previous edition if the scientist is known to be recently deceased. Biographies in seven hefty volumes are alphabetically arranged by name, and an eighth volume has a discipline index based on the National Science Foundation's Taxonomy of Degree and Employment Specialties. The work can be used by a broad range of users: by newspapers to check the credentials of scientists in the news, librarians to check the authority of authors¿ names, research organizations to identify experts in certain fields, and students to begin searching the large number of reference works now found only in electronic form. Essential. All collections."
-- Choice (May 2003)

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