Bill Rapson
William Sage Rapson | |
|---|---|
| Born | 14 August 1912 |
| Doctoral advisor | Robert Robinson |
William Sage Rapson (14 August 1912 – 25 June 1999) was a New Zealand and South African chemist. His initial career was in organic chemistry but he moved into inorganic chemistry with particular emphasis on gold. His research interests ranged from fish oil through coal liquefaction to X-ray diffraction.
Early life and education
Rapson was one of seven children raised on a small farm in
In 1934 he went to Oxford to study organic chemistry with Robert Robinson. He developed the Rapson-Robinson synthesis, while completing his thesis in 1935 at the age of 23. He was then appointed lecturer in organic chemistry at the University of Cape Town (1935–41).[1]
Research
In 1946 he became professor designate of Chemistry after having been a Senior Lecturer. He did pioneering work on fruit and fish resource of the Western Cape region which became the foundation for South Africa's fish oil industry. He also researched coal liquefaction and collaborated with physicists at the University of Cape Town on the development of X-ray diffraction.[1]
He was the first director of the National Chemical Research Laboratory of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) in Pretoria. His research areas included South African water and mineral resources. In particular, deacidification and desalination methods for waste dumps and rivers. He identified a type of grass that would grow in the acidic sand of gold mine tailings dumps around Johannesburg to assist with preventing the sand from polluting the nearby rivers.[1]
In 1958 he was promoted to vice-president of CSIR. He was then appointed Research Advisor to the
Private life
In 1937 Rapson married Joyce Rachel Abey, who had been permanently disabled in a motorcycle accident prior to them meeting. They had two daughters. She died in 1996. Rapson died in 1999.[1]
Selected works
- Rapson, William Sage; Robinson, Robert (1935). "307. Experiments on the synthesis of substances related to the sterols. Part II. A new general method for the synthesis of substituted cyclohexenones". Journal of the Chemical Society (Resumed): 1285. .
- Rapson, W. S. and Groenewald, T. (1978) Gold Usage. Academic Press. ISBN 0-12-581250-7.
Sources
- Austin, Brian (2001) Schonland – Scientist and Soldier, IOPP, Bristol, ISBN 0-7503-0501-0
References
- ^ a b c d e f Raub, Christoph J (1999). "Appreciation: Dr William S Rapson (1912 – 1999) A very versatile scientist" (PDF). Gold Bulletin. 32 (4): 111–114. . Retrieved 7 June 2019.
- ^
Raub, E. (1940). Köster, W. (ed.). Die Edelmetalle und ihre Legierungen (in German) (VI ed.). Berlin Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag. p. 323. ISBN 978-3-642-51392-3. Retrieved 7 June 2019.
Reine und angewandte Metallkunde in Einzeldarstellungen
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