Sir Anthony Kevin Cheetham (born 16 November 1946) is a British materials scientist. From 2012 to 2017 he was Vice-President and Treasurer of the

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, r ...

Education

Cheetham was educated at Stockport Grammar School and read chemistry at

St Catherine's College, Oxford St Catherine's College (colloquially called St Catz or Catz) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford and is the newest college admitting both undergraduate and graduate students. Tracing its roots back to 1868 (although t ...

, matriculating in 1965, and graduated with first class honours in 1969. He started his doctorate at

Wadham College, Oxford Wadham College () is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. It is located in the centre of Oxford, at the intersection of Broad Street and Parks Road. Wadham College was founded in 1610 by Doroth ...

in the same year, with a thesis on 'The Structures of some Non-stoichiometric Compounds'; his doctorate was awarded in 1972.

Career and research

After completing his doctorate, Cheetham became a Junior Research Fellow at

Lincoln College, Oxford Lincoln College (formally, The College of the Blessed Mary and All Saints, Lincoln) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford, situated on Turl Street in central Oxford. Lincoln was founded in 1427 by Richard Fleming, t ...

. In 1974 he became a University Lecturer in Chemical Crystallography, and in 1990 he became Ad Hominem Reader in Inorganic Materials. Cheetham moved to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...

a year later to take up a position as Professor of Materials at the

University of California, Santa Barbara The University of California, Santa Barbara (UC Santa Barbara or UCSB) is a public land-grant research university in Santa Barbara, California with 23,196 undergraduates and 2,983 graduate students enrolled in 2021–2022. It is part of the ...

, where he became the first director of the Materials Research Laboratory (MRL). In 2007, Cheetham moved back to the United Kingdom to become

Goldsmiths' Professor of Materials Science The Goldsmiths' Professorship of Materials Science is a professorship in the University of Cambridge, associated with the Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy. The professorship was established by grace of 20 November 1931 as the Goldsmi ...

University of Cambridge , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

, a position he held until October 2017. He is now a Distinguished Research Fellow at the Department of Materials Science at the University of Cambridge. He also holds a Distinguished Visiting Professorship at the

National University of Singapore The National University of Singapore (NUS) is a national public research university in Singapore. Founded in 1905 as the Straits Settlements and Federated Malay States Government Medical School, NUS is the oldest autonomous university in th ...

and a Research Professorship in the MRL at the

. Cheetham's area of research is inorganic and hybrid materials, and involves their synthesis, characterization and applications. He has worked on the development of advanced methods for the chemical and structural characterization of polycrystalline materials and the application of these techniques to the study of

zeolite Zeolites are microporous, crystalline aluminosilicate materials commonly used as commercial adsorbents and catalysts. They mainly consist of silicon, aluminium, oxygen, and have the general formula ･y where is either a metal ion or H+. These ...

catalysts,

molecular sieves A molecular sieve is a material with pores (very small holes) of uniform size. These pore diameters are similar in size to small molecules, and thus large molecules cannot enter or be adsorbed, while smaller molecules can. As a mixture of molecu ...

, and optical materials. His current interests are in the field of functional metal-organic frameworks and

hybrid perovskites A perovskite solar cell (PSC) is a type of solar cell that includes a perovskite-structured compound, most commonly a hybrid organic–inorganic lead or tin halide-based material as the light-harvesting active layer. Perovskite materials, such ...

. His former doctoral students include

Paul Attfield John Paul Attfield (born 1962) One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from the royalsociety.org website where: is a Professor of Materials science in the School of Chemistry at the University of Edinburgh and Director of the ...

Clare Grey Dame Clare Philomena Grey is Geoffrey Moorhouse Gibson Professor in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of Pembroke College, Cambridge. Grey uses nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy to study and optimiz ...

Matthew Rosseinsky Matthew Jonathan Rosseinsky FRS is Professor of Inorganic Chemistry at the University of Liverpool. He was awarded the Hughes Medal in 2011 "for his influential discoveries in the synthetic chemistry of solid state electronic materials and novel ...

, and

Russell E. Morris Russell Edward Morris (born 8 June 1967) is Bishop Wardlaw Professor of Chemistry at the University of St Andrews. He played first-class cricket while he was a student at the University of Oxford. He also represented the University of Oxfor ...

Honours and awards

*1982 Corday-Morgan Medal and Prize of Royal Society of Chemistry *1988 Solid State Chemistry Award of the

*1994 Elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) *1996 RSC Structural Chemistry Award *1997 Chaire Internationale de Recherche "Blaise Pascal", Paris, France *1999 Elected a Fellow of the World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) *2001 Elected an Honorary Fellow of the

Indian Academy of Sciences The Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore was founded by Indian Physicist and Nobel Laureate C. V. Raman, and was registered as a society on 24 April 1934. Inaugurated on 31 July 1934, it began with 65 founding fellows. The first general mee ...

*2004 Somiya Award of th
International Union of Materials Research Societies (IUMRS)
*2006 Docteur Honoris Causa, Université de Versailles, France *2008 Cheetham Award Lecture, UC Santa Barbara *2011 Platinum Medal of the

Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining The Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining (IOM3) is a UK engineering institution whose activities encompass the whole materials cycle, from exploration and extraction, through characterisation, processing, forming, finishing and applicatio ...

*2011 Elected a Member of the German National Academy of Sciences (Leopoldina) *2011 Raman Chair,

*2011 Honorary D.Sc., University of St. Andrews, Scotland *2011 Honorary D.Sc., Tumkur University, India *2012 Nyholm Prize for Inorganic Chemistry of the

Royal Society of Chemistry The Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) is a learned society (professional association) in the United Kingdom with the goal of "advancing the chemistry, chemical sciences". It was formed in 1980 from the amalgamation of the Chemical Society, the Ro ...

. *2013 Elected a Member of the German National Academy of Engineering (acatech) *2014 Chemical Pioneer Award,

American Institute of Chemists The American Institute of Chemists (AIC) is an organization founded in 1923 with the goal of advancing the chemistry profession in the United States. The institute is known for its yearly awards recognizing contributions of individuals in this fie ...

*2014 Elected a Member of the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, ...

*2015 Honorary D.Sc.,

University of Warwick , mottoeng = Mind moves matter , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £7.0 million (2021) , budget = £698.2 million (202 ...

, England *2017 Basolo Medal,

Northwestern University Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston, Illinois. Founded in 1851, Northwestern is the oldest chartered university in Illinois and is ranked among the most prestigious academic institutions in the world. Chart ...

, USA *2017 Elected an Honorary Fellow, Trinity College,

, England *2018 Elected an Honorary Fellow, Singapore National Academy of Science *2019 Elected a Foreign Fellow,

Indian National Science Academy The Indian National Science Academy (INSA) is a national academy in New Delhi New Delhi (, , ''Naī Dillī'') is the Capital city, capital of India and a part of the NCT Delhi, National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is t ...

Cheetham was knighted in the 2020 New Year Honours for services to materials chemistry, UK science and global outreach.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cheetham, Anthony Living people 1946 births English chemists Fellows of the Royal Society Foreign Fellows of the Indian National Science Academy Goldsmiths' Professors of Materials Science Alumni of St Catherine's College, Oxford Alumni of Wadham College, Oxford C British materials scientists Knights Bachelor Rare earth scientists Solid state chemists