Ronald George Wreyford Norrish

Norrish died on 7th June 1978, at the age of 81 in Cambridge.

Norrish was born in Cambridge on 9th November 1897 to Herbert Norrish and Amy Norrish. His father was a native of Crediton, Devonshire and moved to Cambridge to start his pharmacy.

He did his early schooling at a local boarding school and went on for high school at the Perse Grammar School in 1910 upon receiving a scholarship.

In 1915, he obtained a scholarship through entrance examination and entered the Emmanuel College, Cambridge, in 1915 to pursue Natural Sciences.

In 1916, Norrish was assigned military duty by the Royal Field Artillery for service in France during the World War I.

He was taken prisoner of war in 1918 by the German forces to Germany and stayed there until the rest of the war.

Norrish was inspired by Eric Redeal under whom he took up his first research work for the study of Photochemistry.

In 1930, he was appointed a lecturer in the department of physical chemistry in the University of Cambridge. In 1937, he was promoted to the post of professor.

In 1965, he retired as a Professor Emeritus from the Cambridge University.

At the Cambridge University, Norrish had the opportunity to work with some highly intuitive students and with them he carried out an extensive research in the field of Photochemistry and reaction kinetics, including combustion and polymerization.

Unfortunately his research work came to a halt with the start of the Second World War in 1940. However, he continued to lead the department and teach during that period. He was actively working about his research ideas and collaborated with government committees.

In 1945, after the World War II came to an end, he continued with his research once again about transients in short lived chemical reactions.

From 1949 to 1965, Norrish worked in collaboration with his student, George Porter (who is presently a professor) on ‘Flash Photolysis and ‘Kinetic Spectroscopy’, the most powerful methods till date for studying all aspects of a chemical reaction.

His other scientific interests were in the areas of mechanism of chain reactions including combustion and formation of plastics.