The book launch is free to attend and open to all, but registration is required in advance – book your seat via Eventbrite
A pre-event reception with tea, coffee and cakes will be held up on the mezzanine outside the entrance to G16 from 16:45, whilst awine reception with canapés will follow in the rooms opposite
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With a history spanning three centuries, the Department of Chemistry at Imperial College London has been home to many of thekey discoveries in the field as the world’s outstanding chemists worked in its laboratories and many more received their introduction to the field as students.
From the cradle of the British chemical industry where William Perkin discovered the dye mauveine, and its extraordinary contributions to both World Wars, this home of Nobel Laureates continues to stand at the forefront of global research.
This remarkable history has been brought to life in a new book written by former Imperial student Professor Hannah Gay andcurrent Emeritus Professor Bill Griffith. Using archival sources, oral and written testimony, published and unpublished material,The Chemistry Department at Imperial College London: A History 1845–2000 provides a comprehensive and entertaining pictureof the Department across 150 years.
To mark the book’s release the Department of Chemistry is hosting an official book launch, giving attendees the chance to meet one of the authors and to hear talks from two former Department heads, Prof Steven Ley FRS & Prof David Phillips FRS, and one current staff member Dr Kim Jelfs, giving their own historical, current and future perspectives on the Department and the field ofchemistry.
The event will also include some opening remarks by Bill Griffith and a message from Hannah Gay plus a brief introduction by current Head of Department Prof Alan Armstrong who will also provide a snapshot of the Department’s exciting future in the new Molecular Sciences Research Hub at White City.
Publishers World Scientific will also attend selling discounted copies of the book so attendees can take home their own copy
Biographies
Hannah Gay was a professor of history at Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, and is now an honorary research associate in its chemistry department. Before going to Canada, she did her B.Sc. and Ph.D. at Imperial College. She was commissioned by IC to write The History of Imperial College London, 1907-2007. She has also written The Silwood Circle: A History of Ecology and the Making of Scientific Careers in Late Twentieth-Century Britain.
Bill Griffith is an emeritus professor in the chemistry department at Imperial College, and did his B.Sc. and Ph.D. there with the late Nobel laureate, Sir Geoffrey Wilkinson. He then worked with a Fulbright award in Chicago and Stanford universities withanother Nobel laureate, Henry Taube, before returning to IC. He has published eight books on the chemistry of the platinum group metals, some 300 research papers and several papers on historico-chemical topics.
Steven Ley was a lecturer at Imperial College in 1975, promoted to Professor in 1983, and Head of Department in 1989. In 1990 he was elected to the Royal Society (London) and was President of the Royal Society of Chemistry from 2000-2002. He has been the BP (1702) Professor of Chemistry at the University of Cambridge since 1992. During his career he has published over 730 papers and has gained 43 major awards for his work which involves the discovery and development of new synthetic methodsand their application to biologically active systems. The TPAP catalytic oxidant that is now used worldwide and cited extensivelywas one of his inventions, developed with Bill Griffith. His group has published extensively on the use of iron carbonyl complexes, organoselenium chemistry, and the use of microwaves in organic chemistry.
David Phillips FRS joined Imperial College in 1989 as Professor of Physical Chemistry, serving as Head of the Department of Chemistryand Dean of the Faculties of Life Sciences and Physical Sciences before retiring in 2006. His research interests include the fundamentals and applications of photochemistry and photophysics, fluorescence-lifetime imaging microscopy (FLIM) and photodynamic therapy. He has been awarded the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) Nyholm Prize for Education, and the Royal Society Michael Faraday Award for his contributions to the public understanding of science. David has received an OBE for services to science education, and a CBE for services to chemistry and is former President of the RSC (2010–2012).
Kim Jelfs graduated from University College London (UCL) with a First Class Honours MSci degree in Chemistry. She then obtained her PhD in Chemistry via the Royal Institution of Great Britain at UCL. From November 2009 until March 2010, Kim was a research visitor at the Universitat de Barcelona, where she conducted research with Professor Stefan Bromley. She then joined theUniversity of Liverpool as a post-doctoral research associate before coming to Imperial in 2013. Her research field is computational materials discovery and the development of computer programs to design systems that could one day enable theautomated discovery of a range of molecular materials.