George Porter

{{Short description|British chemist}}{{For-multi|other people named George Porter|George Porter (disambiguation)|other people with the title of Lord Porter|Lord Porter (disambiguation)}}

{{Infobox scientist

| honorific_prefix = The Right Honourable

| name = The Lord Porter of Luddenham

| honorific_suffix = {{postnominals|country=GBR|size=100%|OM|FRS|FRSE}}

| image = George Porter Nobel.jpg

| birth_name = George Porter

| birth_date = {{birth date|1920|12|6|df=yes}}

| birth_place = Stainforth, England

| death_date = {{death date and age|2002|8|31|1920|12|6|df=yes}}

| death_place =

| field = Chemistry

| work_institutions = {{Plainlist|

| alma_mater = {{Plainlist|

University of Leeds (BSc)
{{nowrap|Emmanuel College, Cambridge}}}} (PhD)

| thesis_title = The study of free radicals produced by photochemical means

| thesis_year = 1949

| thesis_url = http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.648049

| doctoral_advisor = Ronald Norrish

| doctoral_students = {{Plainlist|

James Robert Durrant{{cite thesis|degree=PhD|website=spiral.imperial.ac.uk|publisher=Imperial College London|title=Transient absorption spectroscopy of photosystem two|first= James Robert|last=Durrant|year=1991|

url=https://spiral.imperial.ac.uk/handle/10044/1/11455|id={{EThOS|uk.bl.ethos.573962}}|hdl=10044/1/11455|oclc= 855696059}} {{free access}}

Graham Fleming}}

| known_for = Flash photolysis

| influences =

| influenced =

| spouse = Stella Jean Brooke (since 1949){{cite web | url=https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/chemistry/1967/porter/biographical/ | title=The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1967 }}

| prizes = {{Plainlist|class=nowrap|

Corday-Morgan Prize (1955)
FRS (1960)
Nobel Prize in Chemistry (1967){{Cite journal | last1 = Weisskopf | first1 = V. F.| title = Nobel Prizes: Four Named for International Award. | doi = 10.1126/science.158.3802.745 | journal = Science | volume = 158 | issue = 3802 | pages = 745–748 | year = 1967 | pmid = 4860395| bibcode = 1967Sci...158..745W }}
Davy Medal (1971)
Kalinga Prize (1976)
Rumford Medal (1978)
Faraday Lectureship Prize (1980)
Order of Merit (1989)
Michael Faraday Prize (1991)
Copley Medal (1992)}}

}}

George Porter, Baron Porter of Luddenham, {{postnominals|country=GBR|size=100%|sep=,|OM|FRS|FRSE}} (6 December 1920 – 31 August 2002) was a British chemist.{{Cite journal | last1 = Phillips | first1 = David |author-link1=David Phillips (chemist) | title = Obituary: George Porter (1920–2002) | doi = 10.1038/419578a | journal = Nature | volume = 419 | issue = 6907 | pages = 578 | year = 2002 | pmid = 12374966| bibcode = 2002Natur.419..578P | s2cid = 30532134 | doi-access = free }} He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1967.

Education and early life

Porter was born in Stainforth, near Thorne, in the then West Riding of Yorkshire. He was educated at Thorne Grammar School,{{Cite ODNB | title = The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography | doi = 10.1093/ref:odnb/77183 | year = 2004 }} then won a scholarship to the University of Leeds and gained his first degree in chemistry. During his degree, Porter was taught by Meredith Gwynne Evans, who he later said was the most brilliant chemist he had ever met. He was awarded a PhD from the University of Cambridge in 1949 for research investigating free radicals produced by photochemical means.{{cite thesis|degree=PhD|publisher=University of Cambridge|title=The study of free radicals produced by photochemical means|first= George|last=Porter|date=1949|url=http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.648049}} He would later become a fellow at Emmanuel College, Cambridge.{{Cite web |title=The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1967 |url=https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/chemistry/1967/porter/biographical/ |access-date=2022-11-18 |website=NobelPrize.org |language=en-US}}

Career and research

Porter served in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve during the Second World War. Porter then went on to do research at the University of Cambridge supervised by Ronald George Wreyford Norrish where he began the work that ultimately led to them becoming Nobel Laureates.

His original research in developing the technique of flash photolysis to obtain information on short-lived molecular species provided the first evidence of free radicals. His later research utilised the technique to study the detailed aspects of the light-dependent reactions of photosynthesis, with particular regard to possible applications to a hydrogen economy, of which he was a strong advocate.

He was Assistant Director of the British Rayon Research Association from 1953 to 1954, where he studied the phototendering of dyed cellulose fabrics in sunlight.David Phillips [http://www.icpress.co.uk/etextbook/p452/p452_chap01.pdf The Biography of George Porter] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130117010227/http://www.icpress.co.uk/etextbook/p452/p452_chap01.pdf |date=17 January 2013 }}. icpress.co.uk

Porter served as professor in the Chemistry department at the University of Sheffield in 1954–65. It was here he started his work on flash photolysis with equipment designed and made in the departmental workshop. During this tenure he also took part in a television programme describing his work. This was in the "Eye on Research" series. Porter became Fullerian Professor of Chemistry and Director of the Royal Institution in 1966. During his directorship of the Royal Institution, Porter was instrumental in the setting up of Applied Photophysics, a company created to supply instrumentation based on his group's work. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1967 along with Manfred Eigen and Ronald George Wreyford Norrish.{{cite web|url=http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/1967/porter-bio.html|title=George Porter – Biography|access-date=30 April 2011|publisher=Nobel Media}} In the same year he became a visiting professor at University College London.

Porter was a major contributor to the Public Understanding of science. He became president of the British Association in 1985 and was the founding Chair of the Committee on the Public Understanding of Science (COPUS). He gave the Romanes Lecture, entitled "Science and the human purpose", at the University of Oxford in 1978; and in 1988 he gave the Dimbleby Lecture, "Knowledge itself is power." From 1990 to 1993 he gave the Gresham lectures in astronomy.

=Awards and honours=

Porter was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 1960,{{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}} a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1979,{{Cite web |title=George Porter |url=https://www.amacad.org/person/george-porter |access-date=2022-05-10 |website=American Academy of Arts & Sciences |language=en}} a member of the American Philosophical Society in 1986,{{Cite web |title=APS Member History |url=https://search.amphilsoc.org/memhist/search?creator=Professor+Lord+Porter&title=&subject=&subdiv=&mem=&year=&year-max=&dead=&keyword=&smode=advanced |access-date=2022-05-10 |website=search.amphilsoc.org}} and served as President of the Royal Society from 1985 to 1990. He was also awarded the Davy Medal in 1971, the Rumford Medal in 1978, the Ellison-Cliffe Medal in 1991 and the Copley Medal in 1992.

Porter also received an Honorary Doctorate from Heriot-Watt University in 1971.{{Cite web|url=http://www1.hw.ac.uk/graduation/honorary-graduates.htm|title=Heriot-Watt University Edinburgh: Honorary Graduates|last=|website=www1.hw.ac.uk|access-date=2016-04-07|archive-date=18 April 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160418163907/http://www1.hw.ac.uk/graduation/honorary-graduates.htm|url-status=dead}}

He was knighted in 1972, appointed to the Order of Merit in 1989,{{cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/2230778.stm|title=Science/Nature Obituary: Lord Porter|date=2 September 2002|work=BBC Online|publisher=BBC News|access-date=7 March 2016}} and was made a life peer as Baron Porter of Luddenham, of Luddenham in the County of Kent, in 1990. In 1995, he was awarded an Honorary Degree (Doctor of Laws) from the University of Bath.{{cite web |url=http://www.bath.ac.uk/ceremonies/hongrads/ |title=Honorary Graduates 1989 to present |publisher=University of Bath |work=bath.ac.uk |access-date=18 February 2012 |archive-date=17 July 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100717061336/http://www.bath.ac.uk/ceremonies/hongrads/ |url-status=dead }}

In 1976 he gave the Royal Institution Christmas Lecture on The Natural History of a Sunbeam.[http://richannel.org/george-porter--famous-experiments "George Porter – Famous Experiments"], Ri Channel video, 6 December 1985 {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120128032951/http://richannel.org/george-porter--famous-experiments |date=28 January 2012 }}

Porter served as Chancellor of the University of Leicester between 1984 and 1995. In 2001, the university's chemistry building was named the George Porter Building in his honour.

Family

In 1949 Porter married Stella Jean Brooke.

Publications

Chemistry for the Modern World (1962)
Chemistry in Microtime (1996)

References

External links

{{NPG name}}
[http://www.rigb.org/our-history/people/p/george-porter Profile] – Royal Institution of Great Britain
[https://web.archive.org/web/20070606112042/http://www.worldscibooks.com/chemistry/p452.html The Life and Scientific Legacy of George Porter], World Scientific Publishing, 2006
[https://www.theguardian.com/news/2002/sep/03/guardianobituaries.obituaries Obituary in The Guardian, 3 September 2002]
[https://web.archive.org/web/20160303192956/http://www.open.ac.uk/ou5/Arts/chemists/person.cfm?SearchID=8585 Biographical Database of the British Chemical Community, 1880–1970]
[http://www.asa3.org/ASA/PSCF/1976/JASA3-76Porter.html "The Relevance of Science"]. George Porter. JASA (Journal of the American Scientific Affiliation) Vol. 28. March 1976. pp. 2–3.(Includes editorial responses from astronomer Owen Gingerich and theologian Bernard Ramm amongst others.)
{{Nobelprize}}