Professor Edmund Albert Letts

FRSE Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE) is an award granted to individuals that the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland's national academy of science and Literature, letters, judged to be "eminently distinguished in their subject". ...

FCS FIC (27 August 1852 – 19 February 1918) was a 19th-century English chemist. He was a pioneer of analytical chemistry. The Letts Nitrile Synthesis is named after him. He spent much time analysing the content of carbon dioxide in air and water and the latter part of his life looked at pollution in tidal waters. Queens University Belfast give a Letts Chemical Research Scholarship in his memory.

Life

He was born at Clare Lodge in

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on 27 August 1852 the son of Emma Harwood Barrie and her husband, Thomas Letts. He was educated at Bishop's Stortford School in

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. He studied science at

King's College, London King's College London (informally King's or KCL) is a public university, public research university in London, England. King's was established by royal charter in 1829 under the patronage of George IV of the United Kingdom, King George IV ...

then undertook postgraduate studies at both

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and

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. Aged 20 he became Chief Assistant in the Chemistry Department of the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh (, ; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a Public university, public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Founded by the City of Edinburgh Council, town council under th ...

. In 1876 he became the first Professor of Chemistry at

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, aged 24. Only three years later he transferred to

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to be Professor of Chemistry at

Queens College, Belfast The Queen's University of Belfast, commonly known as Queen's University Belfast (; abbreviated Queen's or QUB), is a public research university in Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom. The university received its charter in 1845 as part of ...

where he then remained for 38 years. In 1874 he was elected a Fellow of the

Royal Society of Edinburgh The Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE) is Scotland's national academy of science and letters. It is a registered charity that operates on a wholly independent and non-partisan basis and provides public benefit throughout Scotland. It was establis ...

. His proposers were

Alexander Crum Brown Alexander Crum Brown Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, FRSE Fellow of the Royal Society, FRS (26 March 1838 – 28 October 1922) was a Scottish Organic chemistry, organic chemist. Alexander Crum Brown Road in Edinburgh's King's Buildi ...

Joseph Lister Joseph Lister, 1st Baron Lister, (5 April 1827 – 10 February 1912) was a British surgeon, medical scientist, experimental pathologist and pioneer of aseptic, antiseptic surgery and preventive healthcare. Joseph Lister revolutionised the Sur ...

Peter Guthrie Tait Peter Guthrie Tait (28 April 18314 July 1901) was a Scottish Mathematical physics, mathematical physicist and early pioneer in thermodynamics. He is best known for the mathematical physics textbook ''Treatise on Natural Philosophy'', which he ...

and

Sir James Dewar Sir James Dewar ( ; 20 September 1842 – 27 March 1923) was a Scottish chemist and physicist. He is best known for his invention of the vacuum flask, which he used in conjunction with research into the liquefaction of gases. He also studie ...

. He won the Society's

Keith Prize The Keith Medal was a prize awarded by the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland's national academy, for a scientific paper published in the society's scientific journals, preference being given to a paper containing a discovery, either in mathem ...

for the period 1887–89. He retired to South View on the

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, his father's holiday home, in 1917. He was killed in a cycling accident on the Isle of Wight on 19 February 1918.

Publications

*''Qualitative Analysis Tables'' (1892) *''Some Fundamental Problems of Chemistry, Old and New'' (1914)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Letts, Edmund Albert 1852 births 1918 deaths Alumni of King's College London British chemists Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Fellows of the Chemical Society