Robert May
E11183
chief scientific adviser
human
life peer
mathematical biologist
physicist
theoretical ecologist
university teacher
Robert May was a prominent theoretical ecologist and mathematical biologist known for his influential work on population dynamics and the application of chaos theory to ecology.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Robert May canonical | 9 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T81575 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Robert May Context triple: [Robert H. MacArthur, influenced, Robert May]
-
A.
Ernest Merritt
Ernest Merritt was an American physicist and academic who co-founded the influential scientific journal Physical Review and helped shape early 20th-century physics research in the United States.
-
B.
Philip Vian
Philip Vian was a distinguished British Royal Navy admiral known for his aggressive leadership in destroyer actions and key naval engagements during the Second World War.
-
C.
Richard Bolt
Richard Bolt was an American acoustician and co-founder of the influential research and engineering firm Bolt Beranek and Newman, known for its pioneering work in acoustics and computer networking.
-
D.
H. Bates Peacock
H. Bates Peacock was a founder of Geophysical Service Incorporated, an early geophysical exploration company that later evolved into part of Texas Instruments.
-
E.
P. G. Wodehouse
P. G. Wodehouse was an English author celebrated for his witty, farcical comic novels and stories, particularly those featuring Jeeves and Wooster.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Robert May Target entity description: Robert May was a prominent theoretical ecologist and mathematical biologist known for his influential work on population dynamics and the application of chaos theory to ecology.
-
A.
Ernest Merritt
Ernest Merritt was an American physicist and academic who co-founded the influential scientific journal Physical Review and helped shape early 20th-century physics research in the United States.
-
B.
Philip Vian
Philip Vian was a distinguished British Royal Navy admiral known for his aggressive leadership in destroyer actions and key naval engagements during the Second World War.
-
C.
Richard Bolt
Richard Bolt was an American acoustician and co-founder of the influential research and engineering firm Bolt Beranek and Newman, known for its pioneering work in acoustics and computer networking.
-
D.
H. Bates Peacock
H. Bates Peacock was a founder of Geophysical Service Incorporated, an early geophysical exploration company that later evolved into part of Texas Instruments.
-
E.
P. G. Wodehouse
P. G. Wodehouse was an English author celebrated for his witty, farcical comic novels and stories, particularly those featuring Jeeves and Wooster.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (61)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
chief scientific adviser
ⓘ
human ⓘ life peer ⓘ mathematical biologist ⓘ physicist ⓘ theoretical ecologist ⓘ university teacher ⓘ |
| academicPosition |
Professor of Zoology at the University of Oxford
ⓘ
Royal Society Research Professor at the University of Oxford ⓘ |
| awardReceived |
Balzan Prize
ⓘ
Blue Planet Prize ⓘ Companion of the Order of Australia ⓘ Copley Medal ⓘ Knight Bachelor ⓘ Royal Medal ⓘ |
| citizenship |
Australia
ⓘ
United Kingdom ⓘ |
| coAuthor | Roy M. Anderson ⓘ |
| countryOfBirth | Australia ⓘ |
| countryOfDeath | United Kingdom ⓘ |
| dateOfBirth | 1936-01-08 ⓘ |
| dateOfDeath | 2020-04-28 ⓘ |
| degree |
Bachelor of Science in Physics
ⓘ
Doctor of Philosophy in Theoretical Physics ⓘ |
| doctoralAdvisor | Robert Hanbury Brown ⓘ |
| educatedAt |
Sydney Boys High School
ⓘ
University of Sydney ⓘ |
| employer |
Harvard University
ⓘ
Princeton University ⓘ University of Oxford ⓘ University of Sydney ⓘ |
| fieldOfWork |
chaos theory
ⓘ
complex systems ⓘ epidemiology ⓘ mathematical biology ⓘ population dynamics ⓘ theoretical ecology ⓘ |
| fullName | Robert McCredie May ⓘ |
| knownFor |
application of chaos theory to ecology
ⓘ
biodiversity and extinction risk analysis ⓘ logistic map in population dynamics ⓘ stability and complexity in model ecosystems ⓘ work on infectious disease dynamics ⓘ |
| memberOf |
Australian Academy of Science
ⓘ
Royal Society ⓘ US National Academy of Sciences ⓘ
linked to:
National Academy of Sciences
|
| name | Robert May ⓘ |
| nobleTitle | Life peer in the House of Lords ⓘ |
| notableWork |
Infectious Diseases of Humans: Dynamics and Control
ⓘ
Stability and Complexity in Model Ecosystems ⓘ |
| placeOfBirth | Sydney ⓘ |
| placeOfDeath | Oxford ⓘ |
| politicalAffiliation | crossbench ⓘ |
| positionHeld |
Chief Scientific Adviser to the UK Government
ⓘ
Head of the UK Office of Science and Technology ⓘ President of the Royal Society ⓘ |
| researchInterest |
biodiversity loss
ⓘ
ecological stability ⓘ epidemic modeling ⓘ food web structure ⓘ |
| title | Baron May of Oxford ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Robert May Description of subject: Robert May was a prominent theoretical ecologist and mathematical biologist known for his influential work on population dynamics and the application of chaos theory to ecology.
Referenced by (9)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.