Alan Carrington

CBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

, FRS (6 January 1934 – 31 August 2013) was a British chemist and one of the leading spectroscopists in Britain in the late twentieth century.

Education

Carrington was educated at

Colfe's School Colfe's School, previously Colfe's Grammar School, is a co-educational private day school in Horn Park in the Royal Borough of Greenwich, in southeast London, England, and one of the oldest schools in London. The school is a member of the Headm ...

and the

University of Southampton The University of Southampton (abbreviated as ''Soton'' in post-nominal letters) is a public university, public research university in Southampton, England. Southampton is a founding member of the Russell Group of research-intensive universit ...

where he was awarded the degrees of B.Sc. and Ph.D. While still a PhD student, Carrington spent a year as a research fellow at the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota Twin Cities (historically known as University of Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint ...

Career and research

Carrington was a

Fellow A fellow is a title and form of address for distinguished, learned, or skilled individuals in academia, medicine, research, and industry. The exact meaning of the term differs in each field. In learned society, learned or professional society, p ...

Downing College, Cambridge Downing College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge and currently has around 950 students. Founded in 1800, it was the only college to be added to the university between 1596 and 1869, and is often described as the oldest of ...

between 1959 and 1967, where he worked closely with

Christopher Longuet-Higgins Hugh Christopher Longuet-Higgins (11 April 1923 – 27 March 2004) was a British theoretical chemist and cognitive scientist. He was the Professor of Theoretical Chemistry at the University of Cambridge for 13 years until 1967 when he moved to ...

, and became assistant director of research in 1963.Debretts
In 1967 Carrington returned to the University of Southampton as one of the youngest professors of chemistry in Britain at the time, becoming a Royal Society Research Professor from 1979 until his retirement in 1999. Carrington moved his Royal Society Research Professorship from Southampton to 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 ...

during the period 1984-1987, during which his laboratory was in the (then) Physical Chemistry Laboratories on South Parks Road. While at Oxford Carrington was a Fellow of

Jesus College, Oxford Jesus College (in full: Jesus College in the University of Oxford of Queen Elizabeth's Foundation) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. It is in the centre of the city, on a site between Turl Street, Ship ...

, Carrington moved his research professorship back to the University of Southampton in 1987, where he remained until his retirement from the University of Southampton in 1999. Carrington's earlier contributions to chemical physics were in the fields of

electron spin resonance Electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) or electron spin resonance (ESR) spectroscopy is a method for studying materials that have unpaired electrons. The basic concepts of EPR are analogous to those of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), but the spin ...

(esr) spectroscopy, and magnetic resonance in general. During this period Carrington authored the classic monograph on Magnetic Resonance with Andrew McLachlan, 'Introduction to Magnetic Resonance with Applications to Chemistry and Chemical Physics'. Carrington's later work was concerned with examining the structure of molecular ions in energy regions close to their dissociation limits. This work on the spectroscopy of simple molecular ions provided accurate measurements with which theoretical calculations could usefully be compared. In particular, his work on the simplest diatomic and triatomic molecules gave rise to measurements that have not yet been matched by theoretical calculations. Much of this work is reviewed in the classic monograph authored with John M Brown, "Rotational Spectroscopy of Diatomic Molecules".Rotational Spectroscopy of Diatomic Molecules AUTHORS:John M. Brown, Alan Carrington, Paperback

Awards and honours

Carrington was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 1971, and received the

Faraday Lectureship Prize The Faraday Lectureship Prize, previously known simply as the Faraday Lectureship, is awarded once every two years (approximately) by the Royal Society of Chemistry for "exceptional contributions to physical or theoretical chemistry".. Named aft ...

in 1986 and the

Davy Medal The Davy Medal is awarded by the Royal Society of London "for an outstandingly important recent discovery in any branch of chemistry". Named after Humphry Davy, the medal is awarded with a monetary gift, initially of £1000 (currently £2000). Re ...

in 1992. He also became a Foreign Associate of the US

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, 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 ...

in 1994. He served as President of the Faraday Division of the

Royal Society of Chemistry The Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) is a learned society and 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 ...

in 1997-1998. He was made a

Commander of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

in 1999 and an Honorary Fellow of Downing College, Cambridge in 2000.

References

External links

Richard J. Saykally, "Alan Carrington", Biographical Memoirs of the National Academy of Sciences (2015)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Carrington, Alan 1934 births 2013 deaths Fellows of the Royal Society Foreign associates of the National Academy of Sciences Alumni of the University of Southampton Academics of the University of Southampton Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Fellows of Downing College, Cambridge Fellows of Jesus College, Oxford