Roland Victor Norris (1888 – 28 April 1950) was a biochemist and agricultural scientist who worked in India and Ceylon. He served as the first agricultural chemist to the government of

Madras Chennai, also known as Madras ( its official name until 1996), is the capital and largest city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost state of India. It is located on the Coromandel Coast of the Bay of Bengal. According to the 2011 Indian ce ...

Biography

Norris graduated from

Manchester University The University of Manchester is a public university, public research university in Manchester, England. The main campus is south of Manchester city centre, Manchester City Centre on Wilmslow Road, Oxford Road. The University of Manchester is c ...

and worked as an assistant to W.H. Perkin. He then worked at the

Lister Institute of Preventive Medicine The Lister Institute of Preventive Medicine, informally known as the Lister Institute, was established as a research institute (the British Institute of Preventive Medicine) in 1891, with bacteriologist Marc Armand Ruffer as its first director, ...

in London. In 1910 he worked with Professor

Arthur Harden Sir Arthur Harden, FRS (12 October 1865 – 17 June 1940) was a British biochemist. He shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1929 with Hans Karl August Simon von Euler-Chelpin for their investigations into the fermentation of sugar and ferme ...

on yeast fermentation and received a D.Sc. from London University. In 1914 he took up the post of Physiological Chemist at the Imperial Bacteriological Laboratory in Mukteshwar, India. He served in the Indian Army briefly during the war and in 1918 he became the first Agricultural Chemist to the government of Madras. From 1924 to 1929 he worked as a professor of biochemistry at the

Indian Institute of Science The Indian Institute of Science (IISc) is a Public university, public, Deemed university, deemed, research university for higher education and research in science, engineering, design, and management. It is located in Bengaluru, Karnataka. The ...

working on a range of agricultural problems including

soil fertility Soil fertility refers to the ability of soil to sustain agricultural plant growth, i.e. to provide plant habitat and result in sustained and consistent yields of high quality.

, the chemistry of

shellac Shellac () is a resin secreted by the female Kerria lacca, lac bug on trees in the forests of India and Thailand. Chemically, it is mainly composed of aleuritic acid, jalaric acid, shellolic acid, and other natural waxes. It is processed and s ...

and the spike disease of

sandalwood Sandalwood is a class of woods from trees in the genus ''Santalum''. The woods are heavy, yellow, and fine-grained, and, unlike many other aromatic woods, they retain their fragrance for decades. Sandalwood oil is extracted from the woods. Sanda ...

. He moved to

Ceylon Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...

in 1929 where he served as director of the Tea Research Institute. He was married to biochemist Dorothy Norris who later worked at the Lac research institute in Ranchi, Jharkhand, India. He was married secondly to Wendy Elizabeth Marie Quigley in 1934 and a daughter, Wendy Elizabeth Anne Jill, was born in Ceylon. He visited South Africa in November 1949 and died in 1950 at

Port Shepstone Port Shepstone is a large town situated on the mouth of the Mzimkhulu River, the largest river on the KwaZulu-Natal South Coast of South Africa. It is located halfway between Hibberdene and Margate, KwaZulu-Natal, Margate and is positioned 120&nbs ...

, South Africa. He took a keen interest in sports, drama, and was a Freemason.

Publications

Norris' work in England was mostly on glycogen metabolism and yeast fermentation. After moving to India, he worked on a range of topics including human nutrition, soil nutrients and microbiological processes. * * * * * he inventor of the activated sludge process, Gilbert John Fowler was his predecessor at the Indian Institute of Science] * ''Report on a Visit to Java'' [with plates, written by the chairman and the director] (1935). Colombo: Tea Research Institute of Ceylon.

Notes

References

External links

Department of Biochemistry, Indian Institute of Science
{{DEFAULTSORT:Norris, Roland Victor 1888 births 1950 deaths English biochemists Agricultural chemists British expatriates in the Colony of Natal British expatriates in British Ceylon British people in colonial India