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Department of Chemistry, University of Oxford

{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2021}}

{{short description|Department of the University of Oxford}}

{{Infobox university

|name = Department of Chemistry, University of Oxford

|image_name = Oxford inorganic chemistry building.jpg

|caption = The Inorganic Chemistry Laboratory (ICL) building in South Parks Road at Oxford

|established = 1860

|students =

|head = Stephen Faulkner

|head_label = Head of Department

|city = Oxford

|country = United Kingdom

|coor =

|campus =

|affiliations = University of Oxford

|website = {{URL|chem.ox.ac.uk}}

}}

File:Oxford PTCL in snow.jpg (PTCL) building.]]

The Department of Chemistry is the chemistry department of the University of Oxford, England, which is part of the university's Mathematical, Physical and Life Sciences Division.

Overview

The department has several laboratories in the Science Area, Oxford:{{cite book| title=Oxford University Pocket Diary | year=2014–15 | publisher=Oxford University Press | chapter=Chemistry, Dept of | page=164 }}

= Mansfield Road=

In Mansfield Road

=South Parks Road=

In South Parks Road

History

Chemistry has a long history at Oxford. The early pioneer of chemistry Robert Boyle and his assistant Robert Hooke began working in Oxford in the mid-seventeenth century. A chemistry laboratory was built in the basement of the Old Ashmolean Building in 1683, which was used until 1860.{{cite web |url=http://www.ashmolean.org/about/historyandfuture/ |title=History of the Ashmolean |work=Ashmolean Museum }} Chemical research was also conducted in laboratories set up in individual colleges – Christ Church, Oxford (1767), Magdalen College, Oxford (Daubeny Laboratory, 1848), Balliol College, Oxford (1853, later joined with Trinity College, Oxford to become the Balliol-Trinity Laboratories), Queen's College, Oxford (1900), and Jesus College, Oxford (1907).{{cite book|title=Chemistry at Oxford: A History from 1600 to 2005|author1=Robert Joseph Paton Williams |author2=Allan Chapman |author3=John Shipley Rowlinson |page=275 | publisher=Royal Society of Chemistry |date=6 November 2008|isbn= 978-0854041398 }}

File:Chemistry Reseach Laboratory Entrance.JPG]]

Chemistry was first recognized as a separate discipline at Oxford with the building of a laboratory attached to the Oxford University Museum of Natural History, opening in 1860.{{cite web| url=http://www.chem.ox.ac.uk/history/ | title=History of Chemistry at the University of Oxford | publisher=Department of Chemistry, University of Oxford | location=UK | access-date=25 August 2015 }} The laboratory is a small octagonal structure to the right of the museum, built in stone in the Victorian Gothic style. The design was based on the Abbot's Kitchen at Glastonbury and it adopted the same name despite being a laboratory. The building was one of the first ever purpose-built chemical laboratories anywhere and was extended in 1878. The Abbot's Kitchen in Oxford was expanded considerably in 1957 to become the main Inorganic Chemistry Laboratory (ICL).{{cite web |url= http://history.chem.ox.ac.uk/inorganic-chemistry.aspx |title=Inorganic Chemistry Laboratory |work=Department of Chemistry}} The Dyson Perrins Laboratory opened in 1916 and was the centre of the Department of Organic Chemistry until 2003 when it was replaced by the Chemistry Research Laboratory.{{cite book |url=http://www.chem.ox.ac.uk/history/DP-History/mobile/index.html |title=The Dyson Perrins Laboratory and Oxford Organic Chemistry |author= John Jones |isbn=978-0-9512569-4-7 |date=2008}} The Physical Chemistry Laboratory replaced the Balliol-Trinity Laboratories in 1941, and its east wing completed in 1959. The physical and theoretical chemistry departments merged in 1994 and the Physical and Theoretical Chemistry Laboratory became its base in 1995.{{cite web |url=http://history.chem.ox.ac.uk/physical-chemistry.aspx |title=Physical Chemistry Laboratory |work=Department of Chemistry }}

A number of professors and scientists who worked in the department had won the Nobel Prize; they include Frederick Soddy for his work on radioactivity with Ernest Rutherford, Cyril Norman Hinshelwood for his work on chemical kinetics, and Dorothy Hodgkin on crystallography. Among the notable achievements by professors in the department are the development of the Periodic Table by William Odling, work on solid state chemistry by John Stuart Anderson and John B. Goodenough (winner of the 2019 Nobel Prize in Chemistry), and bioinorganic chemistry by Robert Williams.

Notable staff and alumni

File:Timothy Softley Royal Society.jpg {{post-nominals|country=GBR|FRS|FRSC|FInstP}} served as head of department from 2011 to 2015]]

File:Graham Richards Royal Society.jpg {{post-nominals|country=GBR|CBE|FRS|FRSC|CChem}} served as head of department from 1997 to 2006]]

File:Margaret Thatcher portrait.jpg {{Post-nominals|country=GBR|LG|OM|DStJ|PC|FRS|HonFRSC}} studied chemistry in the department from 1943]]

Heads of department have included:

  • Mark Brouard 2015-2023{{cite web|url=https://www.chem.ox.ac.uk/people/mark-brouard|title=Mark Brouard {{!}} Department of Chemistry|access-date=14 January 2024}}
  • Timothy Softley FRS 2011 to 2015{{Who's Who | author=Anon| title=Softley, Prof. Timothy Peter | id = U291022 | year = 2019 | doi = | edition = online Oxford University Press|location=Oxford}}{{cite web|url=https://royalsociety.org/people/timothy-softley-13845/|publisher=Royal Society|author=Anon|year=2018|title=Professor Timothy Softley FRS|location=London}}
  • Stephen G. Davies 2006-2011
  • Graham Richards FRS 1997 to 2006{{cite journal|last1=Howard|first1=Brian J.|last2=Grant|first2=Guy H.|title=(William) Graham Richards|journal=Molecular Physics|date= 2009|volume=101|issue=17|pages=2647–2657|doi=10.1080/00268970310001605741

|s2cid=95031061 }}

Current academics in the Department of Chemistry include:{{cite web|url=http://research.chem.ox.ac.uk/research-guides.aspx|title=Research Guides - Research Guides|website=Research.chem.ox.ac.uk|access-date=22 February 2019}}

Other notable staff{{cite web|url=http://research.chem.ox.ac.uk/research-guides.aspx|title=Research Guides - Research Guides|website=Research.chem.ox.ac.uk|access-date=22 February 2019}} and alumni{{cite web|url=http://alumni.chem.ox.ac.uk/|title=Home - Alumni|website=Alumni.chem.ox.ac.uk|access-date=22 February 2019}} include:

References

{{reflist}}

{{University of Oxford}}

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Category:1860 establishments in England

Chemistry

Oxford