Obituary: D. W. J. Osmond

D. W. J. OSMOND was an innovative industrial chemist working with ICI for over 30 years.

He was born in 1925, the only son of a traindriver. He took a wartime science degree at Reading University, graduating in 1945; and began postgraduate studies there, funded by ICI, with Professor E.A. Guggenheim. Osmond was a dedicated researcher, always concerned to see a practical application of his work - a difference with Guggenheim which led him to discontinue his postgraduate project at Reading before he had obtained his doctorate.

The same independence of mind led him twice to decline promotion within ICI which would have taken him further from personal "hands-on" experimentation and observation. His example, and that of others like him, led ICI to introduce in the Sixties a "scientific ladder" to recognise and reward scientific contribution comparably with that of senior management. Osmond was among the initial appointments and advanced to its highest level, retiring in 1979 as Senior Research Associate.

His pioneering work at ICI on non-aqueous polymer dispersions arose from lateral thinking on how to produce more durable car paints with less air- polluting solvent. Little did he realise at its outset the breadth of industrial applications to which it would lead or its future academic significance.

It is a fascinating scientific detective story how, contrary to then accepted theory, his early experiments led adventitiously to stable dispersions of the polymer poly-methyl methacrylate in petroleum fractions. Its elucidation then led to the synthesis of discrete specific stabilisers for individual polymers in different carrying liquids. The hazy understanding of the mechanism described as "steric stabilisation" (the means by which the polymer is held stably in the liquid) subsequently led him into the previously unexplored theoretical field of its energetics (thermodynamics).

The early practical applications, for example in paint finishes for cars, led to ICI Paints' receiving in 1969 the rarer of the Queen's Awards for Industry, that for technical innovation. It later led to better alternatives to ceramics for sanitary ware and additives for reducing the flammability of aircraft fuels.

Exploration of the theoretical questions involved led, at Osmond's instigation, to a close collaboration with the Colloid School of Chemistry at Bristol University established by Professor D.H. Everett. In consequence, what could have remained a crude polymerisation technique was developed to provide the well-characterised colloidal systems crucial for the elucidation of the concept of "steric stabilisation". The appreciation of its importance has altered the course of research on colloidal systems in both industry and academia.

In 1974, Osmond and R.H. Ottewill, of Bristol University, were simultaneously awarded the Industrial Medal of the Chemical Society for their work in this field. A quarter of a century's work by Osmond and industrial and academic colleagues is published in numerous patents, scientific papers and the 1975 book Dispersion Polymerisation in Organic Media.

All who encountered "Ozzie" professionally in industrial and academic science or socially and in his personal interests, recognised an extraordinary wide-ranging, powerfully analytical and creative mind of insatiable curiosity. It was combined with a similarly outstanding generosity of spirit. When he had applied himself with his customary intensity to almost any matter, there was little further for others to add. His co-workers, meanwhile, visibly grew under his encouragement.

The same fertile mind was applied to many of his fields of personal interest, most significantly to music and its performance and reproduction. He addressed himself to reducing the interaction of pitch and volume in recorders, and to improving the performance of plectra for harpsichords, and of high- fidelity "quad" speakers. In the mid-Seventies, he became a consultant to the Museum of Musical Instruments in Brussels on the better preservation of the many historical instruments in its outstanding collection.

It is a tribute to Osmond's intellectual acumen and will-power that he achieved so much while battling against the earlier stages of the distressing and debilitating Parkinson's disease. It cut short his scientific work, but he and his devoted wife, Peggy, maintained a long and brave struggle against it. Characteristically he assisted his medical advisers in diagnosis and treatment of his gradually deteriorating physical condition.

John Long and Fred Waite

Desmond Wilfred John Osmond, industrial chemist: born Salisbury, Wiltshire 27 June 1925; married 1946 Peggy Mulligan; died Exeter, Devon 13 April 1998.