Eric Rideal
Sir Eric Keightley Rideal,
Early years
Eric Keightley Rideal was born on 11 April 1890 in
When World War I broke out, Rideal was working on water supplies in Ecuador, an assignment that had come to him through his father.[7] He returned home and enlisted with the Artists Rifles, eventually serving on the Western Front at the Somme in 1916 with the Royal 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 at University College London under Frederick G. Donnan.[6]
During this period he also worked with Hugh Stott Taylor, co-authoring Catalysis in Theory and Practice (1919), described as a "seminal" work in the field.[7]
Rideal was made
Career and research
Following the war, Rideal went to the US in 1919 to take a position for a year as visiting professor at the
Rideal remained at Cambridge for the next 26 years, becoming Professor of Colloid Science in 1930, the same year he was made a
Following World War II, Rideal left Cambridge to take up the position of
During his career, Rideal also gave a number of public lectures. These included the Cantor Lecture of the Royal Society of Arts (1921, 1924 and 1948).[5] He also delivered the 1932 Robert Boyle Lecture,[5] titled 'On some aspects of adsorption'.[9] In 1947, Rideal gave the Royal Institution Christmas Lectures, entitled 'Chemical Reactions: How They Work'.[10]
In 1949, Rideal was one of the founding editors of the journal Advances in Catalysis.[6]
Awards and honours
Rideal was awarded the Davy Medal of the Royal Society in 1951 "For his distinguished contributions to the subject of surface chemistry".[11]
He was knighted in the 1951 King's Birthday Honours List for his services to the Ministry of Supply during World War II.[7]
Also in 1951, he delivered the
He was President of the Faraday Society (1938 to 1945),[14] the Society of Chemical Industry (1945 to 1946),[4] and the Chemical Society (1950 to 1952).[14] He was elected a Fellow of King's College London in 1963.[13]
Later years
Rideal died on 25 September 1974 in West Kensington, London.[5] His obituary was published in The Times.[15]
Legacy
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 the Royal 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]
Selected works
- Catalysis in Theory and Practice (1919, co-author)
- Industrial electrometallurgy (1919)
- Ozone (1920)
- An Introduction to Surface Chemistry (1926)
- Interfacial Phenomena (1963, co-author)
- Concepts in Catalysis (1968)
- Sixty Years of Chemistry (1970)
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Rideal, Sir Eric Keightley (1890–1974) rev., D. D. Eley, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004. Retrieved 17 February 2011
- ^ 'Biographical Notes' entry for Rideal in The World of Physical Chemistry, Keith J. Laidler, 1993, p. 445
- ^ a b c Sir Eric Keightly Rideal, The UCL Periodic Table of the Lecturers, UCL website. Retrieved 18 February 2011
- ^ Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography. 2008. Retrieved 18 February 2011 from Encyclopedia.com
- ^ .
- ^ a b c d e f Sir Eric K. Rideal (1890–1974) by D. D. Eley, in Advances in Catalysis (Eley and Weisz, 1977), pp.xiii–xv
- ^ a b c d Eric Rideal, Notable Chemists section, Society of Chemical Industry website. Retrieved 18 February 2011.
- ^ The Rideals had a daughter, Mary, who married the future Lord Justice Peter Oliver, Baron Oliver of Aylmerton (see the ODNB entry)
- ^ On some aspects of adsorption: being the thirty-fourth Robert Boyle lecture, delivered before the Oxford University Junior Scientific Club on May 13, 1932, Sir Eric Keightley Rideal, H. Milford and Oxford University Press, 1932
- .
- ^ Davy archive winners 1989–1900, The Royal Society website. Retrieved 17 February 2011.
- S2CID 95461082.
- ^ a b RIDEAL, Sir Eric, Who Was Who, A & C Black, 1920–2008; online edn, Oxford University Press, Dec 2007. Retrieved 18 February 2011.
- ^ a b The Chemical Society 1944 to 1980, RCS presidents, Royal Society of Chemistry website. Retrieved 19 February 2011.
- ^ Sir Eric Rideal, The Times, 27 September 1974
- ^ Sir Eric Rideal Travel Bursaries, Royal Society of Chemistry website. Retrieved 18 February 2011
- ^ Tadion Rideal Prize Details Archived 26 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine, University of London, RDfunding.org.uk website. Retrieved 17 February 2011
- ^ Sir Eric Rideal Lecture, Society of Chemical Industry website. Retrieved 18 February 2011
- ^ Sir Eric Rideal Archived 27 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine, North American Catalysis Society website. Retrieved 17 February 2011
- ^ 2018 Rideal Conference Archived 13 December 2017 at the Wayback Machine, conference website, Catalysis Hub. Retrieved 13 December 2017.
External links
- Works by or about Eric Rideal at Internet Archive
- Sir Eric Keightley Rideal, portrait circa 1922 (National Portrait Gallery)
- Sir Eric Keightley Rideal, portrait in later life (Advances in Catalysis, 1977)
- Eric Keightley Rideal (1890–1974) (Biography page at the Royal Institution)
- Eric Keightley Rideal (Archives page at the Royal Institution)
- Eric Rideal Collection Archived 30 March 2012 at the Wayback Machine (AIM25 listing of the collection at the Royal Institution)
- Rideal, Sir Eric Keightley (1890–1974) Knight Physical Chemist (The National Archives)
- Sir Eric Rideal (Obituary published in Nature)