Albert Ernest Alexander
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Albert Ernest Alexander (1914–1970) was a British-Australian
chemist A chemist (from Greek ''chēm(ía)'' alchemy; replacing ''chymist'' from Medieval Latin ''alchemist'') is a graduated scientist trained in the study of chemistry, or an officially enrolled student in the field. Chemists study the composition of ...
known for his pioneering work with
colloid A colloid is a mixture in which one substance consisting of microscopically dispersed insoluble particles is suspended throughout another substance. Some definitions specify that the particles must be dispersed in a liquid, while others exte ...
s.


Biography

Albert Ernest Alexander was born on 5 January 1914 in
Ringwood, Hampshire Ringwood is a market town in south-west Hampshire, England, on the River Avon, Hampshire, River Avon close to the New Forest, northeast of Bournemouth and southwest of Southampton. It was founded by the Anglo-Saxon England, Anglo-Saxons, ...
, the sixth of seven children of William Albert Alexander, a master builder, and Beatrice (née Daw), formerly a teacher. He attended Brockenhurst County School, from where he gained a place in 1931 at the
University of Reading The University of Reading is a public research university in Reading, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1892 as the University Extension College, Reading, an extension college of Christchurch College, Oxford, and became University College, ...
. He graduated in 1934 with First Class Honours in Chemistry and an Open Scholarship to
King's College, Cambridge King's College, formally The King's College of Our Lady and Saint Nicholas in Cambridge, is a List of colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college lies beside the River Cam and faces ...
. He was awarded a First Class in the
Tripos TRIPOS (''TRIvial Portable Operating System'') is a computer operating system. Development started in 1976 at the Computer Laboratory of Cambridge University and it was headed by Dr. Martin Richards. The first version appeared in January 1978 a ...
Examination. Originally published in ''Records of the Australian Academy of Science'', vol.2, no.2, 1971. With the benefit of a King's College Senior Scholarship, a DSIR grant for research, and a Ramsay Memorial Fellowship, Alexander joined the Department of Colloid Science to work under Professor E K Rideal (later Sir Eric Keightley Rideal, MBE, FRS). He began with work on the orientation in films of long-chain esters and continued by examining porphyrins, chlorophylls and other molecules, with and without metals. Alexander was awarded his PhD in 1938, and then went hitch-hiking in Scandinavia with his friend from Cambridge F S Dainton. During their holiday they visited
Theodor Svedberg Theodor Svedberg (30 August 1884 – 25 February 1971; also known as The Svedberg) was a Swedish chemist and Nobel laureate for his research on colloids and proteins using the ultracentrifuge. Svedberg was active at Uppsala University from the ...
's laboratory in Uppsala in August 1938, after which Alexander decided he would like to spend as much time as he could working with Torsten Teorell in Uppsala. He started at the Institute of Medical Chemistry in December 1938, but had to return to England at the outbreak of war in September 1939. His work in that nine-month period was published that year. He returned to Cambridge, where he was elected a Fellow of King's College. In the Department of Colloid Science work continued on a wide range of topics including the role of hydrogen bonding in condensed monomolecular films and the effects of soaps and synthetic wetting agents on the biological activities of phenols. Fourteen publications appeared in the war years. In 1944 Alexander became one of two Assistant Directors of Research in the Colloid Science Department; Gordon Sutherland was the other. On 6 February 1947 he delivered the Tilden Lecture in recognition of the
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he had been awarded by the
Chemical Society The Chemical Society was a scientific society formed in 1841 (then named the Chemical Society of London) by 77 scientists as a result of increased interest in scientific matters. Chemist Robert Warington was the driving force behind its creation. ...
of London. In October 1947 the Société de Chimie Physique and the
Faraday Society The Faraday Society was a British society for the study of physical chemistry, founded in 1903 and named in honour of Michael Faraday. In 1980, it merged with several similar organisations, including the Chemical Society, the Royal Institute of Che ...
held a joint discussion meeting at
Bordeaux Bordeaux ( ; ; Gascon language, Gascon ; ) is a city on the river Garonne in the Gironde Departments of France, department, southwestern France. A port city, it is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the Prefectures in F ...
on
Surface Chemistry Surface science is the study of physics, physical and chemistry, chemical phenomena that occur at the interface (chemistry), interface of two phase (matter), phases, including solid–liquid interfaces, solid–gas interfaces, solid–vacuum int ...
, at which Alexander and colleagues gave five papers. In 1949 Alexander and Johnson published Colloid Science which an anonymous reviewer praised as a broad, modern, and authoritative treatment of the subject of colloid physics and chemistry from the fundamental rather than from the phenomenological viewpoint. In Australia, the government of New South Wales created an Institute of Technology as part of its plan to expand its technical education system at the tertiary level. They advertised for applications for a Chair in Applied Chemistry, to which Alexander was appointed. On 1 October 1949 he and his family sailed from London to Sydney on the RMS ''Maloja''. They lived at 178 Raglan Street, Mosman, a suburb of Sydney, and only a short drive from the Sydney Technical College. During Alexander's seven years there he authored or co-authored some 40 papers. Many involved systems of practical importance, such as efforts to reduce evaporation from dams, and the cattle tick problem in NSW. But, disillusioned with the lack of progress with the status of the Technical College to an autonomous university, Alexander moved to 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 ...
in 1956. Work was quickly restarted on topics that may be catalogued under four headings: (a) monolayer studies, (b) micellar solutions, (c) the roles of surfactants in heterogeneous polymerisations, and (d) the effects of polyelectrolytes on the crystallisations of sparingly soluble salts. Fifty or more papers appeared from Alexander and his group. Their work is described in detail in Le Fèvre’s memoir.


Personal life and character

Albert married Catherine Robson in Cambridge in 1940. They had two children: Naomi, born in 1944 and a son, William Neil, known as Neil. Naomi was killed in a car crash in the USA in 1966. Catherine died of cancer 14 November 1963. Two years later, on 10 December 1965 Alexander married Gisela Gudrum Baker (née Zutavern, of Heidelberg), the widow of Kingsley Ferguson Baker, a Sydney industrial chemist, at the Presbyterian Church in Pymble. Stricken by a brain tumour in 1969 when serving as dean of science, he died at his Mosman home on 23 May 1970 and was cremated. His wife, and the son of his first marriage, survived him. The Pymble Church “was packed by friends, colleagues, and students on 26 May for a funeral service during which a moving
panegyric A panegyric ( or ) is a formal public speech or written verse, delivered in high praise of a person or thing. The original panegyrics were speeches delivered at public events in ancient Athens. Etymology The word originated as a compound of - ' ...
was spoken by Professor I.G. Ross”. One obituary summed up Alexander the man thus:


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Alexander, Albert British emigrants to Australia 20th-century Australian chemists Fellows of the Australian Academy of Science University of New South Wales alumni 1914 births 1970 deaths Colloid chemists Alumni of the University of Reading