How to correctly mention people in a PhD thesis? I'm currently looking for some advise concerning the correct way of mentioning people (i.e. inventors or scientists) in a (PhD) thesis. To clarify, I'm looking for a good way of phrasing "Method X was invented by Y". Which of the following sentences - if any - would be the best way?


Method X was invented by Doe
Method X was invented by John Doe
Method X was invented by John Doe (12 March 1899 - 22 April 1956)
Method X was invented by the Russian mathmatician and writer John Doe (12 March 1899 - 22 April 1956)


Personally, I think that it's appropriate to give some background (i.e. birth and death dates) for each newly introduced person. However, this might maybe be considered a bit too elaborated for a technical thesis.
Generally you should ask your advisor on that. It strongly depends on the discipline and probably the requirements of your parent institution. For example in my case the correct method was Method X was invented by Doe, but I have written a few works where the citation style was customarily Method X was invented by J. Doe as well as Method X was invented by John Doe.

On the other hand I can't remember any paper where an author would introduce biographical data of the people whose names are referred. You are generally not writing about those people but their ideas. Moreover, sometimes you may be unable to find the birth and death dates - what would you do in that case? Omit the data in case of few people where you were unable to find it?