Page 5 - Periodic Issue 04

C

elebrating the 90th birthday

of Professor Sir John Rowlinson FRS

Professor Sir John Rowlinson was appointed Dr Lee’s Books
Professor of Chemistry in 1974, a position he held
until his retirement in 1993. A distinguished physical Cohesion: a scientific history of
chemist and theoretician, his profound and widely intermolecular forces, Cambridge
influential contributions to the chemical sciences University Press 2005. ISBN:
were recognised in 2000 when he was knighted for 9780521673556.
services to chemistry, chemical engineering, and Molecular Theory of Capillarity
education. Professor Rowlinson also has a long- (with B Widom)
standing interest in the history of science. In 2008 he Dover Publications Inc., 2003.
received the ACS Edelstein Award for “the breadth ISBN: 978-0486425443
and quality of his research publications in the history Chemistry at Oxford: A History
of physical chemistry and his contributions over the from 1600 to 2005. (Editor, with
last three decades to the development of the history RJP Williams)
of chemistry at the University of Oxford.” A selection Royal Society of Chemistry 2008.
of his most important publications is given opposite, ISBN: 978-0854041398
and you can read his online account of some of the history of the Physical and Theoretical Journal articles
Chemistry Laboratory at Oxford at http://ptcl.chem.ox.ac.uk/history/ptcl2.html.
A molecular dynamics study of
Described by one of his colleagues as “an enormously distinguished scholar, yet also a perfect liquid drops
gentleman, who pivotally shaped Physical Chemistry at Oxford for over two decades”, Thompson, S. M.; Gubbins, K. E.;
Professor Rowlinson remains an active researcher, and is in fact to be found in the PTCL Walton, J. P. R. B.; Chantry, R.
most days. A. R.; Rowlinson, J. S. Journal of
We congratulate Sir John warmly on having reached the milestone of his 90th birthday in Chemical Physics (1984), 81(1),
May, and wish him many happy returns! 530-42.

75 Years of the PTCL

The Physical and Theoretical Chemistry Laboratory, where
Professor Rowlinson spent much of his working life, is 75 years
old. Completed during WW2, from 1941-44 two chemists
slept there every night as firewatchers in case the building was
bombed. No bombs ever fell on Oxford, although they were
sometimes to be heard not far away.
Originally the Physical Chemistry Laboratory, this building
has been home to many illustrious chemists. It was built
under the then Dr Lee’s Professor, Sir Cyril Hinshelwood,
whose work with Nicolay Semenov on the mechanisms of
chemical reactions led to the award of a Nobel Prize in 1956.
Hinshelwood’s successor, Sir Rex Richards, distinguished for has the distinction of having been the first female Professor of
his work on nuclear magnetic resonance, would later become Chemistry at both Oxford and Cambridge universities.
University Vice-Chancellor. Kineticist Sir (later Lord)
Frederick Dainton then held the post until John Rowlinson Professor Rowlinson inspires great loyalty and dedication in
took over the reins in 1974. all that work with him, a feature that survives in the PTCL to
this day. Charlie Jones retired in 2015 after 49 years of service
Since Professor Rowlinson, the Dr Lee’s Chair has been held by in the mechanical workshop and six current members of the
Professors John Simons (1993), and Jacob Klein (2000). The PTCL support staff, all of whom who started in Professor
current Dr Lee’s Professor, Dame Carol Robinson, is renowned Rowlinson’s time, have each worked in the PTCL for more
for her pioneering use of protein mass spectrometry. She also than 30 years.

5
Periodic
The Magazine of the Department of Chemistry