:Ronald George Wreyford Norrish
{{Short description|British chemist}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Infobox scientist
| name = Ronald George Wreyford Norrish
| image = Ronald George Wreyford Norrish.jpg
| birth_date = {{birth date|1897|11|9|df=y}}
| birth_place = Cambridge, England
| death_date = {{death date and age|1978|6|7|1897|10|9|df=y}}
| death_place = Cambridge, England
| field = Chemistry
| work_institutions = University of Cambridge
| alma_mater = University of Cambridge (BA, PhD)
| doctoral_advisor = Eric Rideal
| thesis_title = Radiation and chemical reactivity
| thesis_year = 1924
| thesis_url = http://ulmss-newton.lib.cam.ac.uk/vwebv/holdingsInfo?bibId=35259
| doctoral_students =
| known_for = Flash photolysis
Norrish reaction
Trommsdorff–Norrish effect
| influences =
| influenced =
| prizes = {{Plainlist|
- FRS (1936){{cite journal|last1=Dainton|first1=F.|last2=Thrush|first2=B. A.|title=Ronald George Wreyford Norrish. 9 November 1897-7 June 1978|journal=Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society|volume=27|year=1981|pages=379–424|issn=0080-4606|doi=10.1098/rsbm.1981.0016|s2cid=72584163|doi-access=free}}
- Davy Medal {{small|(1958)}}
- Faraday Lectureship Prize {{small|(1965)}}
- Nobel Prize in Chemistry (1967)}}
}}
Ronald George Wreyford Norrish FRS (9 November 1897 – 7 June 1978) was a British chemist who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1967.Norrish's [http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/1967/norrish-bio.html Nobel Foundation biography]Norrish's Nobel Lecture [http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/1967/norrish-lecture.pdf Some Fast Reactions in Gases Studied by Flash Photolysis and Kinetic Spectroscopy]{{AcademicSearch|18047590}}
Education and early life
Norrish was born in Cambridge and was educated at The Perse School and Emmanuel College, Cambridge.{{cite web | url=http://www.emma.cam.ac.uk/about/famous/index.cfm?id=12 | title=Ronald George Wreyford Norrish (1897 – 1978) | publisher=Emmanuel College, Cambridge | access-date=25 January 2012}} He was a former student of Eric Rideal. From an early age he was interested in chemistry, walking up and down Cambridge University chemical laboratory admiring all the equipment. His father encouraged him to construct and equip a small laboratory in his garden shed in his garden and supplied all the chemicals he needed to conduct experiments.{{Cite journal|last1=Dainton|first1=Frederick Sydney|last2=Thrush|first2=Brian Arthur|date=November 1981|title=Ronald George Wreyford Norrish, 9 November 1897 - 7 June 1978|journal=Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society|language=en|volume=27|pages=379–424|doi=10.1098/rsbm.1981.0016|s2cid=72584163 |issn=0080-4606|doi-access=free}} This apparatus now forms part of the Science Museum collections - reference shows copper water tank {{Cite web|title=Copper water tank, from Ronald G. W. Norrish's garden shed chemical laboratory {{!}} Science Museum Group Collection|url=https://collection.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk/objects/co8622574/copper-water-tank-from-ronald-g-w-norrishs-garden-shed-chemical-laboratory|access-date=2021-11-21|website=collection.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk|language=en}} He used to enter competitions for the analysis of mixtures sent round by the Pharmaceutical Journal and often won prizes. In 1915 Norrish won a Foundation Scholarship to Emmanuel College, but by adding a little to his age joined the Royal Field Artillery and served as a Lieutenant, first in Ireland and then on the Western Front.
Career and research
Norrish was a prisoner in World War I and later commented, with sadness, that many of his contemporaries and potential competitors at Cambridge had not survived the War. Military records show that 2nd Lieutenant Norrish of the Royal Artillery went missing (captured) on 21 March 1918.
Norrish rejoined Emmanuel College as a Research Fellow in 1925 and later became Head of the Department of Physical Chemistry at the University of Cambridge.
The skill which Norrish displayed in his laboratory work problems marked him out amongst his contemporaries as an unusually gifted and energetic experimentalist, capable of making significant advances in photo-chemistry and gas kinetics.
Awards and honours
Norrish was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 1936. As a result of the development of flash photolysis, Norrish was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1967 along with Manfred Eigen and George Porter{{cite journal|last1=Fleming|first1=G. R.|last2=Phillips|first2=D.|title=George Porter KT OM, Lord Porter of Luddenham. 6 December 1920 – 31 August 2002: Elected F.R.S. 1960|journal=Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society|volume=50|year=2004|pages=257–283|issn=0080-4606|doi=10.1098/rsbm.2004.0017|doi-access=free}} for their study of extremely fast chemical reactions. One of his accomplishments is the development of the Norrish reaction.{{fact|date=April 2023}}
At Cambridge, Norrish supervised Rosalind Franklin, future DNA researcher and colleague of James Watson and Francis Crick, and experienced some conflict with her.Rosalind Franklin: The Dark Lady of DNA. New York: HarperCollins, 2002. {{ISBN|0-06-018407-8}}, p. 72
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- {{Nobelprize|name=Ronald G.W. Norrish}} including the Nobel Lecture, 11 December 1967 Some Fast Reactions in Gases Studied by Flash Photolysis and Kinetic Spectroscopy
{{Nobel Prize in Chemistry Laureates 1951-1975}}
{{1967 Nobel Prize winners}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Norrish, Ronald George Wreyford}}
Category:Scientists from Cambridge
Category:People educated at The Perse School
Category:Alumni of Emmanuel College, Cambridge
Category:Fellows of Emmanuel College, Cambridge
Category:Nobel laureates in Chemistry
Category:British Nobel laureates
Category:English physical chemists
Category:World War I prisoners of war held by Germany
Category:Fellows of the Royal Society
Category:English Nobel laureates