Kenneth Richard Seddon (1950–2018) was a chemist specialising in

ionic liquids An ionic liquid (IL) is a salt in the liquid state at ambient conditions. In some contexts, the term has been restricted to salts whose melting point is below a specific temperature, such as . While ordinary liquids such as water and gasoline are ...

Biography

Seddon was born in

Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

in 1950. He studied chemistry at

Liverpool University The University of Liverpool (abbreviated UOL) is a public research university in Liverpool, England. Founded in 1881 as University College Liverpool, Victoria University, it received Royal Charter by King Edward VII in 1903 attaining the de ...

, completing his PhD in 1973, then took up a research fellowship 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 ...

. In 1982 he moved to the School of Chemistry and Molecular Sciences (MOLS) at the

University of Sussex The University of Sussex is a public university, public research university, research university located in Falmer, East Sussex, England. It lies mostly within the city boundaries of Brighton and Hove. Its large campus site is surrounded by the ...

. He left Sussex in 1993 to become chair and Director of the

Queen's University 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 founded the Queen's University Ionic Liquid Laboratories (QUILL) Research Centre. He was also Professor Catedrático Visitante at the Instituto de Tecnologia Química e Biológica (ITQB), New University of Lisbon, Portugal, and Visiting Professor at the Chinese Academy of Sciences. He also served as Associate Editor of the Australian Journal of Chemistry. He was awarded the OBE in 2015. His students include
Alaa Abdul-SadaJohn Spencer
and Thomas Welton.

References

Obituaries

Obituary in The Telegraph, 31 January 2018

Kenneth R. Seddon on Superstars of Science. Retrieved 10 February 2018

Obituary on the University of Sussex website. Retrieved 10 February 2018

{{DEFAULTSORT:Seddon, Ken 1950 births 2018 deaths English chemists Academics of Queen's University Belfast Officers of the Order of the British Empire Scientists from Liverpool