John Meurig Thomas
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Sir John Meurig Thomas (born December 15, 1932), is a leading British chemist, primarily known for his work on heterogeneous catalysis.
Born in Llanelli, South Wales, Thomas received his BSc and PhD degrees from the University of Wales, Swansea. After a year's work for the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority, he was appointed in 1958 an Assistant Lecturer (later Senior Lecturer, then Reader) in Chemistry at the University of Wales, Bangor. In 1969 he became Head of Chemistry at the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth, a post he held until 1978 when he took up the Chair of Physical Chemistry at the University of Cambridge. In 1986 he succeeded Sir George Porter as Director of the Royal Institution, and in 1987 the BBC televised his Royal Institution Christmas Lectures. His term as Director ended in 1991, but he remains a Professorial Research Fellow at the RI. He was Master of Peterhouse, Cambridge from 1993 to 2002. He currently holds positions at the Department of Materials Science at Cambridge and in the Department of Chemistry of University College London. Among many other honours, he was elected to the Royal Society in 1977 and knighted in 1991. He married Margaret Edwards in 1959; they had two daughters. Margaret died in 2002. The recreations he lists in Who's Who include ancient civilisations and Welsh literature.
Much of Thomas's research has involved trying to understand the structure and activity of solid catalysts using techniques such as NMR spectroscopy and high resolution transmission electron microscopy. He has written over 1000 papers and several books, and is one of the most cited authors in the field of heterogeneous catalysis. In recent years he has focussed on designing “green” catalysts for clean technology.
Selected bibliography
- "Introduction to the Principles of Heterogeneous Catalysis”, 1967, Academic Press. (With W.J. Thomas).
- "Principles and Practice of Heterogeneous Catalysis”, 1997, Wiley. (With W.J. Thomas).
- "Michael Faraday and the Royal Institution: The Genius of Man and Place", 1991, Institute of Physics Publishing.
External links
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