Amyand David Buckingham (28 January 1930 in

Pymble, New South Wales Pymble is a suburb on the Upper North Shore of Sydney in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Pymble is north of the Sydney central business district in the local government area of Ku-ring-gai Council. West Pymble is a separate subu ...

– 4 February 2021) was an Australian chemist, with primary expertise in

chemical physics Chemical physics is a branch of physics that studies chemical processes from a physical point of view. It focuses on understanding the physical properties and behavior of chemical systems, using principles from both physics and chemistry. This ...

Life and career

David Buckingham obtained a

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, B.S., B.Sc., SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree that is awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Scienc ...

and

Master of Science A Master of Science (; abbreviated MS, M.S., MSc, M.Sc., SM, S.M., ScM or Sc.M.) is a master's degree. In contrast to the Master of Arts degree, the Master of Science degree is typically granted for studies in sciences, engineering and medici ...

, under Professor Raymond Le Fevre, from the

University of Sydney The University of Sydney (USYD) is a public university, public research university in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in both Australia and Oceania. One of Australia's six sandstone universities, it was one of the ...

and a

PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

from the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

supervised by

John Pople Sir John Anthony Pople (31 October 1925 – 15 March 2004) was a British theoretical chemist who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Walter Kohn in 1998 for his development of computational methods in quantum chemistry. Ear ...

. He was an 1851 Exhibition Senior Student in the

Physical Chemistry Laboratory The Physical and Theoretical Chemistry Laboratory (PTCL) is a major chemistry laboratory at the University of Oxford, England. It is located in the main Science Area of the university on South Parks Road. Previously it was known as the Physica ...

at the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

from 1955 to 1957, Lecturer and then Student (Fellow) at

Christ Church, Oxford Christ Church (, the temple or house, ''wikt:aedes, ædes'', of Christ, and thus sometimes known as "The House") is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Founded in 1546 by Henry V ...

from 1955 to 1965 and University Lecturer in the Inorganic Chemistry Laboratory from 1958 to 1965. He was Professor of Theoretical Chemistry at the

University of Bristol The University of Bristol is a public university, public research university in Bristol, England. It received its royal charter in 1909, although it can trace its roots to a Merchant Venturers' school founded in 1595 and University College, Br ...

from 1965 to 1969. He was appointed Professor of Chemistry at the University of Cambridge in 1969. He was elected a

Fellow of the Royal Society Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the Fellows of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural science, natural knowledge, incl ...

in 1975, a

Fellow of the American Physical Society The American Physical Society honors members with the designation ''Fellow'' for having made significant accomplishments to the field of physics. The following lists are divided chronologically by the year of designation. * List of fellows of the ...

in 1986 and a Foreign Associate of the

United States National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Nati ...

in 1992. He was a member of the

International Academy of Quantum Molecular Science The International Academy of Quantum Molecular Science (IAQMS) is an international scientific learned society covering all applications of quantum theory to chemistry and chemical physics. It was created in Menton in 1967. The founding members we ...

. Buckingham was elected to the Australian Academy of Science in 2008 as a Corresponding Fellow. He was awarded the first

Ahmed Zewail Ahmed Hassan Zewail (February 26, 1946 – August 2, 2016) was an Egyptian-American chemist, known as the "father of femtochemistry". He was awarded the 1999 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on femtochemistry and became the first Egyptian a ...

Prize in Molecular Sciences for pioneering contributions to the molecular sciences in 2006. He won the Harrie Massey Medal and Prize in 1995. He also played 10

first class cricket First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is of three or more days scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officially adju ...

matches for

Cambridge University The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

and

Free Foresters Free Foresters Cricket Club is an England, English amateur cricket club, established in 1856 for players from the Midland counties of England. It is a 'wandering' (or nomadic) club, having no home ground. The Free Foresters were founded by the ...

between 1955 and 1960, scoring 349 runs including two half-centuries at an average of 18.36. He was President of

Cambridge University Cricket Club Cambridge University Cricket Club, established in 1820, is the representative cricket club for students of the University of Cambridge. The club was recognised as holding first-class cricket, first-class status until 2020. The university played ...

between 1990 and 2009. Professor Buckingham finished his career as Emeritus Professor of Chemistry at the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

and Emeritus Fellow at

Pembroke College, Cambridge Pembroke College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. The college is the third-oldest college of the university and has over 700 students and fellows. It is one of the university's larger colleges, with buildings from ...

Scientific contributions

Professor Buckingham's research has focussed on the measurement and understanding of the electric, magnetic and optical properties of molecules; as well as on the theory of

intermolecular forces An intermolecular force (IMF; also secondary force) is the force that mediates interaction between molecules, including the electromagnetic forces of attraction or repulsion which act between atoms and other types of neighbouring particles (e.g. ...

. Initially he worked on

dielectric In electromagnetism, a dielectric (or dielectric medium) is an Insulator (electricity), electrical insulator that can be Polarisability, polarised by an applied electric field. When a dielectric material is placed in an electric field, electric ...

properties of liquids, such as dipole moments of molecules in both solution and gas phases. He developed the theory of the interaction of molecules in liquids and gases with external electric and magnetic fields. In 1959, he proposed a direct method of measurement of molecular

quadrupole A quadrupole or quadrapole is one of a sequence of configurations of things like electric charge or current, or gravitational mass that can exist in ideal form, but it is usually just part of a multipole expansion of a more complex structure re ...

moments of molecules (measured in

buckinghams The Buckinghams are an American pop band from Chicago. They formed in 1966 and went on to become one of the top-selling acts of 1967, charting their only five top 40 hits in the U.S. that year. The band dissolved in 1970, but re-formed in 1980 a ...

), which he demonstrated experimentally in 1963 on the

carbon dioxide Carbon dioxide is a chemical compound with the chemical formula . It is made up of molecules that each have one carbon atom covalent bond, covalently double bonded to two oxygen atoms. It is found in a gas state at room temperature and at norma ...

molecule. In 1960, he developed theories of

solvent effects In chemistry, solvent effects are the influence of a solvent on chemical reactivity or molecular associations. Solvents can have an effect on solubility, stability and reaction rates and choosing the appropriate solvent allows for thermodynami ...

on nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectra and vibrational spectra of molecules. In 1962 he considered the effect on NMR spectra of molecular orientation in a strong electric field, and developed a method to determine the absolute sign of the spin-spin coupling constant. In 1968, he determined the first accurate values of hyperpolarizability using the

Kerr effect The Kerr effect, also called the quadratic electro-optic (QEO) effect, is a change in the refractive index of a material in response to an applied electric field. The Kerr effect is distinct from the Pockels effect in that the induced index chan ...

. In 1971 Buckingham and Laurence Barron pioneered the study of

Raman optical activity Raman optical activity (ROA) is a vibrational spectroscopic technique that is reliant on the difference in intensity of Raman scattered right and left circularly polarised light due to molecular chirality. History of Raman optical activity The ...

, due to differences in the

Raman scattering In chemistry and physics, Raman scattering or the Raman effect () is the inelastic scattering of photons by matter, meaning that there is both an exchange of energy and a change in the light's direction. Typically this effect involves vibrationa ...

of left and right-polarized light by

chiral Chirality () is a property of asymmetry important in several branches of science. The word ''chirality'' is derived from the Greek language, Greek (''kheir''), "hand", a familiar chiral object. An object or a system is ''chiral'' if it is dist ...

molecules. In the 1980s, he showed the importance of long-range intermolecular forces in determining the structure and properties of small molecule

clusters may refer to: Science and technology Astronomy * Cluster (spacecraft), constellation of four European Space Agency spacecraft * Cluster II (spacecraft), a European Space Agency mission to study the magnetosphere * Asteroid cluster, a small ...

, with particular applications in biological

macromolecule A macromolecule is a "molecule of high relative molecular mass, the structure of which essentially comprises the multiple repetition of units derived, actually or conceptually, from molecules of low relative molecular mass." Polymers are physi ...

s. In 1990 he predicted the linear effect of an electric field on the reflection of light at

interfaces Interface or interfacing may refer to: Academic journals * ''Interface'' (journal), by the Electrochemical Society * '' Interface, Journal of Applied Linguistics'', now merged with ''ITL International Journal of Applied Linguistics'' * '' Inter ...

. In 1995, he proved that the sum of the rotational strengths of all vibrational transitions from the ground state of a chiral molecule is zero.Buckingham A.D. ''The theoretical background to vibrational optical activity'', Faraday Discussions, 99, 1-12 (199
Abstract
/ref>

Personal life

In July 1964, David Buckingham sailed from Southampton to Montréal, to take up a research post in Ottawa. On the voyage he met Jillian Bowles, a physiotherapist who was heading to a post in British Columbia. They were engaged in January 1965 and married at

Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford Christ Church Cathedral is a cathedral of the Church of England in Oxford, England. It is the seat of the bishop of Oxford and the principal church of the diocese of Oxford. It is also the chapel of Christ Church, Oxford, Christ Church, a colle ...

six months later. They were married for over 55 years, and had three children: Lucy Elliot and Mark Vincent, born in Bristol, and Alice Susan born in Cambridge. Between them they had eight grandchildren: Carola, Peter, Oliver, William, Patrick, Anna, Samuel and Maeve. David Buckingham died in Cambridge on 4 February 2021, seven days after his 91st birthday; he was survived by Jill, their children and grandchildren.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Buckingham, A. David 2021 deaths 1930 births Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Fellows of the Royal Society Fellows of Pembroke College, Cambridge Fellows of Christ Church, Oxford Academics of the University of Bristol 20th-century Australian chemists Members of the International Academy of Quantum Molecular Science Theoretical chemists Foreign associates of the National Academy of Sciences Australian cricketers Cambridge University cricketers Free Foresters cricketers Members of the University of Cambridge Department of Chemistry University of Sydney alumni Fellows of the Australian Academy of Science Fellows of the American Physical Society Alumni of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge Chemists from Sydney Presidents of the Cambridge Philosophical Society 20th-century Australian sportsmen

Life and career

Scientific contributions

Personal life

See also

References

External links