Sir Eric Rideal | |
|---|---|
| Professor of Physical Chemistry,King's College, London | |
| In office 1950–1955 | |
| Fullerian Professor of Chemistry,Royal Institution | |
| In office 1946–1949 | |
| Professor of Colloid Science,University of Cambridge | |
| In office 1930–1946 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Eric Keightley Rideal 11 April 1890 |
| Died | 25 September 1974(1974-09-25) (aged 84) West Kensington, London, England |
| Education | Trinity Hall, Cambridge University of Bonn |
| Occupation | Physical chemist |
Sir Eric Keightley Rideal (11 April 1890 – 25 September 1974[1]) was a Britishphysical chemist. He worked on a wide range of subjects, includingelectrochemistry,chemical kinetics,catalysis,electrophoresis,colloids andsurface chemistry.[2] He is best known for theEley–Rideal mechanism, which he proposed in 1938 withDaniel D. Eley.[3] He is also known for the textbook that he authored,An Introduction to Surface Chemistry (1926),[3] and was awarded honours for the research he carried out during both World Wars and for his services to chemistry.[4]
Eric Keightley Rideal was born on 11 April 1890 inSydenham,[1] which at that time was part of the county of Kent. His father was chemist Samuel Rideal, whose work on water purification and disinfection included theRideal–Walker test.[5] His mother was Elizabeth Keightley, daughter of Samuel Keightley. Rideal was educated atFarnham Grammar School, Surrey,[5] and then atOundle School, Northamptonshire.[6] In 1907 he won a scholarship in Natural Sciences toTrinity Hall, Cambridge.[1] After graduating in 1910, he continued his studies in Germany, obtaining his PhD in chemistry in 1912 at theUniversity of Bonn underRichard Anschütz.[3]
WhenWorld War I broke out, Rideal was working on water supplies inEcuador, an assignment that had come to him through his father.[7] He returned home and enlisted with theArtists Rifles, eventually serving on theWestern Front at the Somme in 1916 with theRoyal Engineers.[1] He was invalided home the same year after an outbreak of dysentery, and spent the rest of the war carrying out research in catalysis atUniversity College London underFrederick G. Donnan.[6]
During this period he also worked withHugh Stott Taylor, co-authoringCatalysis in Theory and Practice (1919), described as a "seminal" work in the field.[7]
Rideal was madeMBE in 1918 for his war work.[1]
Following the war, Rideal went to the US in 1919 to take a position for a year as visiting professor at theUniversity of Illinois, a position for which he had been recommended byJames Kendall.[6] He then returned to the UK to take up a fellowship at his old college (Trinity Hall), and the Humphrey Owen Jones lectureship in physical chemistry at Cambridge.[1] It was on the return voyage from the US by ship in 1920 that he met his future wife Peggy (Margaret Atlee Jackson), whom he married the following year.[7][8]
Rideal remained at Cambridge for the next 26 years, becoming Professor of Colloid Science in 1930, the same year he was made aFellow of the Royal Society.[1] During this time, he founded the Colloid Science Laboratory which became a world centre for surface science, and was used for war work duringWorld War II.[6] Rideal's students at Cambridge included the physicist and future novelistC. P. Snow, and the future Nobel laureateRonald G. W. Norrish.[4] Snow later depicted Rideal in two of his novels:The Search (1934) andStrangers and Brothers (1940).[4] Rideal's career at Cambridge was disrupted by an operation in 1936 for an intestinal tumour, an operation that left him with acolectomy and dissuaded him from applying for the vacant chair of physical chemistry in 1937.[4]
Following World War II, Rideal left Cambridge to take up the position ofFullerian Professor of Chemistry at theRoyal Institution in London (1946 to 1949).[1] This was followed by a period atKing's College London (1950 to 1955).[1] After his retirement in 1955, Rideal took up a position as senior research fellow atImperial College, enabling him to write the bookConcepts in Catalysis (1968).[6] It is estimated that over a period of some 60 years, Rideal authored or co-authored nearly 300 papers and a dozen books.[4]
During his career, Rideal also gave a number of public lectures. These included the Cantor Lecture of theRoyal Society of Arts (1921, 1924 and 1948).[5] He also delivered the 1932Robert Boyle Lecture,[5] titled 'On some aspects of adsorption'.[9] In 1947, Rideal gave theRoyal Institution Christmas Lectures, entitled 'Chemical Reactions: How They Work'.[10]
In 1949, Rideal was one of the founding editors of the journalAdvances in Catalysis.[6]
Rideal was awarded theDavy Medal of theRoyal Society in 1951 "For his distinguished contributions to the subject of surface chemistry".[11]
He wasknighted in the1951 King's Birthday Honours List for his services to theMinistry of Supply duringWorld War II.[7]
Also in 1951, he delivered theBakerian Lecture with the title 'On Reactions in Monolayers'.[12] Between 1951 and 1967 Rideal received honorary degrees from the universities of Dublin, Birmingham, Brunel, Belfast, Turin, and Bonn.[1][13]
He was President of theFaraday Society (1938 to 1945),[14] theSociety of Chemical Industry (1945 to 1946),[4] and theChemical Society (1950 to 1952).[14] He was elected a Fellow of King's College London in 1963.[13]
Rideal died on 25 September 1974 inWest Kensington, London.[5] His obituary was published inThe Times.[15]
Rideal's name is still honoured today, with bursaries, grants, lectures and conferences named for him. The travel bursaries are administered jointly in the form of the Rideal Trust by theRoyal Society of Chemistry and the Society of Chemical Industry.[16]
The Tadion–Rideal Prize for Molecular Science is an annual grant awarded by King's College London since 1983.[17]
The Sir Eric Rideal Lecture is a lectureship awarded every year since 1970 by the Society of Chemical Industry.[18]
The Rideal Conference is a triennial UK research conference on surface science and catalysis.[19] It started in 1962 as the Chemisorption and Catalysis Conference and was renamed in his honour in 1971,[4] with the 19th conference scheduled to take place in March 2018.[20]
