Harry Irving (chemist)

{{short description|British chemist}}

{{Infobox scientist

| honorific_prefix =

| name = Harry Munroe Napier Hetherington Irving

| birth_date = {{birth date|1905|11|19|df=y}}

| birth_place = Oxford, England

| death_date = {{death date and age|1993|06|20|1905|11|19|df=y}}

| death_place = Cape Town, South Africa

| nationality =British

| fields =Chemistry

| workplaces =University of Oxford
University of Leeds
University of Cape Town

| alma_mater = The Queen's College, Oxford

}}

Harry Munroe Napier Hetherington Irving (19 November 1905 in Oxford – 20 June 1993 in Cape Town{{cite news|title=Obituary: Harry Irving|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-harry-irving-1485203.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220509/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-harry-irving-1485203.html |archive-date=2022-05-09 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|accessdate=14 August 2015|agency=The Independent|date=16 July 1993}}), often cited as H. M. N. H. Irving, was a British chemist.

Education

As a student as The Queen's College, Oxford, Irving received a BA in 1928 and a DPhil in 1930, the same year he received his Licentiate of the Royal Academy of Music. In 1954, he was awarded a DSc.

Career

Irving was a lecturer and demonstrator in chemistry at Oxford University from 1930 to 1961. He was also the Vice Principal of St Edmund Hall.{{rp|163}}

During the 1940s he began research into coordination chemistry. In 1953, Irving and his doctoral student Robert Williams described a periodic trend now known as the Irving–Williams Series.

Irving was Professor of Inorganic and Structural Chemistry at the University of Leeds between 1961 and 1971[http://digital.library.leeds.ac.uk/12786/1/LUA-PUB-003-3-86_000.pdf University of Leeds, Calendar, 1961-62, page 162] and Professor of Analytical Science at the University of Cape Town between 1979 and 1985.

Private life

Irving was a Freemason under the United Grand Lodge of England. Initiated in the Churchill Lodge No 478 (Oxford), he later joined the Apollo University Lodge No 357 (Oxford),{{cite book |title=Oxford Freemasons: A Social History of Apollo University Lodge |first1=Joe Mordaunt |last1=Crook |first2=James W |last2=Daniel |edition=First |url= |location= |publisher=Bodleian Library, University of Oxford |year=2019 |isbn=978-1-85124-467-6}}{{rp|163}} to which he was proposed by fellow Oxford scientist Bertram Maurice Hobby.{{rp|163}} Irving served at different times as Worshipful Master of both lodges.

Books authored

  • H. M. N. H. Irving, H. Freiser and T. S. West, Compendium of analytical nomenclature : definitive rules, Pergamon Press 1977
  • H. M. N. H. Irving, The Techniques of Analytical Chemistry: Short Historical Survey, Science Museum 1974
  • H. M. N. H. Irving, Dithizone, Royal Society of Chemistry, 1977

References

{{Reflist|30em|refs=

{{cite journal|last1=Hutton|first1=A. T.|title=Harry Irving Hon. FRSSAf|journal=Transactions of the Royal Society of South Africa|date=January 1994|volume=49|issue=2|pages=256–258|doi=10.1080/00359199409520314}}

{{cite journal |last=Irving | first = H. M. N. H.|author2=Williams, R. J. P.|year=1953|title=The stability of transition-metal complexes|journal=J. Chem. Soc.|pages=3192–3210|doi=10.1039/JR9530003192 }}

}}

{{authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Irving, Harry Munroe Napier Hetherington}}

Category:1905 births

Category:1993 deaths

Category:English chemists

Category:Fellows of the Royal Society of Chemistry

Category:Fellows of the Royal Society of South Africa

Category:Alumni of the Queen's College, Oxford

Category:Alumni of the Royal Academy of Music

Category:Fellows of St Edmund Hall, Oxford

Category:Academics of the University of Leeds

Category:Academic staff of the University of Cape Town

Category:British expatriates in South Africa

Category:Freemasons of the United Grand Lodge of England