Sir James Colquhoun Irvine

KBE KBE may refer to: * Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, post-nominal letters * Knowledge-based engineering Knowledge-based engineering (KBE) is the application of knowledge-based systems technology to the domain o ...

FRS

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". ...

FEIS A () or () is a traditional Gaelic arts and culture festival. The plural forms are () and (). The term is commonly used referring to Irish dance competitions and, in Ireland, to immersive teaching courses, specialising in traditional musi ...

(9 May 1877 – 12 June 1952) was a British

organic chemist Organic chemistry is a subdiscipline within chemistry involving the science, scientific study of the structure, properties, and reactions of organic compounds and organic matter, organic materials, i.e., matter in its various forms that contain ...

and

Principal Principal may refer to: Title or rank * Principal (academia), the chief executive of a university ** Principal (education), the head of a school * Principal (civil service) or principal officer, the senior management level in the UK Civil Ser ...

and Vice-Chancellor of the

University of St Andrews The University of St Andrews (, ; abbreviated as St And in post-nominals) is a public university in St Andrews, Scotland. It is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, oldest of the four ancient universities of Scotland and, f ...

from 1921 until his death. As a research chemist, Irvine worked on the application of

methylation Methylation, in the chemistry, chemical sciences, is the addition of a methyl group on a substrate (chemistry), substrate, or the substitution of an atom (or group) by a methyl group. Methylation is a form of alkylation, with a methyl group replac ...

techniques to

carbohydrates A carbohydrate () is a biomolecule composed of carbon (C), hydrogen (H), and oxygen (O) atoms. The typical hydrogen-to-oxygen atomic ratio is 2:1, analogous to that of water, and is represented by the empirical formula (where ''m'' and ''n'' ma ...

, and isolated the first methylated sugars, trimethyl and tetramethyl glucose.

Life

Irvine was born in

Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

to factory owner John Irvine (a manufacturer of light-castings) and Mary Paton Colquhoun. He was educated at

Allan Glen's School Allan Glen's School was, for most of its existence, a State school, local authority, selective Secondary education, secondary school for boys in Glasgow, Scotland, charging nominal fees for tuition. It was founded by the Allan Glen's Endowment ...

. He then studied at the

Royal Technical College The Royal College of Science and Technology was a higher education college that existed in Glasgow, Scotland between 1887 and 1964. Tracing its history back to the Andersonian Institute (founded in 1796), it is the direct predecessor instituti ...

, Glasgow, before taking a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry at the

. From there, he went to the

University of Leipzig Leipzig University (), in Leipzig in Saxony, Germany, is one of the world's oldest universities and the second-oldest university (by consecutive years of existence) in Germany. The university was founded on 2 December 1409 by Frederick I, Electo ...

, where he studied for a PhD under

Ostwald Ostwald may refer to: * Friedrich Wilhelm Ostwald, the physico-chemist (awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 1909) # Ostwald's rule of polymorphism: in general, the least stable polymorph crystallizes first # The Ostwald Process, a synthesis met ...

and Wislicenus. Returning to St Andrews, he was awarded a Doctor of Science degree, and taught Chemistry there. He was appointed Professor of Chemistry in 1909 and

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of Science in 1912. In 1921, he was appointed Principal. His tenure saw the renovation and restoration of both buildings and traditions, and his works are still talked of today. His commitments spanned further than the University, into higher education in Britain and the colonies. He also served as acting Principal of

University College Dundee The University of Dundee is a public research university based in Dundee, Scotland. It was founded as a university college in 1881 with a donation from the prominent Baxter family of textile manufacturers. The institution was, for most of its ...

. 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 ...

in 1917. His proposers were Sir James Walker,

John Edwin Mackenzie John Edwin MacKenzie FRSE OBE (1868-1955) was a Scottish chemist. Life He was born in Helensburgh on 31 August 1868. He was educated at Larchfield Academy in Helensburgh, where his father was headmaster. He studied chemistry at the University ...

Cargill Gilston Knott Cargill Gilston Knott FRS, FRSE LLD (30 June 1856 – 26 October 1922) was a Scottish physicist and mathematician who was a pioneer in seismological research. He spent his early career in Japan. He later became a Fellow of the Royal Society, ...

, and Sir

D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson Sir D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson CB FRS FRSE (2 May 1860 – 21 June 1948) was a Scottish biologist, mathematician and classics scholar. He was a pioneer of mathematical and theoretical biology, travelled on expeditions to the Bering Strait ...

. He was elected a Fellow of The Royal Society of London in 1918 also being awarded its Davy Medal. He served as Vice-President of the

from 1922 to 1925. He was elected an International Member of the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS) is an American scholarly organization and learned society founded in 1743 in Philadelphia that promotes knowledge in the humanities and natural sciences through research, professional meetings, publicat ...

in 1933. He won the society's

Gunning Victoria Jubilee Prize The Gunning Victoria Jubilee Prize Lectureship is a quadrennial award made by the Royal Society of Edinburgh to recognise original work done by scientists resident in or connected with Scotland. The award was founded in 1887 by Dr Robert Halliday ...

for 1936–1940. Irvine was also Willard Gibbs Medallist of the American Chemical Society, Elliot Cressan Medallist of the Franklin Institute, Longstaff Medallist of the Chemical Society of London. He was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1920 and knighted in 1925 and was awarded the Freedom of St Andrews. He received honorary doctorates from the Universities of

Aberdeen Aberdeen ( ; ; ) is a port city in North East Scotland, and is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, third most populous Cities of Scotland, Scottish city. Historically, Aberdeen was within the historic county of Aberdeensh ...

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...

, Columbia,

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Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

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and

Yale Yale University is a private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, and one of the nine colonial colleges ch ...

. He died at home in St Andrews on 12 June 1952 and was buried in the eastern cemetery close to the main lower entrance gate.

Publications

*''Advances in Carbohydrate Chemistry'' (1953)

Family

Irvine married Mabel Violet Williams in 1905.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Irvine, Sir James 1877 births 1952 deaths Academics of the University of St Andrews Alumni of the University of St Andrews Principals of the University of Dundee Scottish chemists Knights Commander of the Order of the British Empire Fellows of the Royal Society Principals of the University of St Andrews Scientists from Glasgow Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh British organic chemists People educated at Allan Glen's School Alumni of the University of Strathclyde Leipzig University alumni Scottish knights Academics from Glasgow International members of the American Philosophical Society