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Professor Colin Eaborn

Pioneer of organosilicon chemistry and 'father' of chemistry at Sussex University

Monday 26 April 2004 00:00 BST
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Colin Eaborn, chemist and educationist: born Churton, Cheshire 15 March 1923; Assistant Lecturer in Chemistry, Leicester University 1947-50, Lecturer 1950-54, Reader 1954-62; Professor of Chemistry, Sussex University 1962-88 (Emeritus); FRS 1970; married 1949 Joyce Thomas; died Brighton, East Sussex 22 February 2004.

Colin Eaborn became internationally famous with the appearance in 1960 of his seminal textbook Organosilicon Compounds, which had a major influence on the development of what has become one of the most prolific areas of organometallic chemistry, with extensive applications in organic synthesis, catalysis and materials science.

This was recognised as early as 1964, when Eaborn became the third ever, and the first non-US, awardee of the American Chemical Society's Frederick Stanley Kipping Award for Organosilicon Chemistry.

Eaborn's research approach was that of a physical-organic chemist, doubtless influenced by his background - PhD in 1947 with E.D. Hughes at the University College of North Wales, Bangor, and postdoctoral stay in 1950-51 with S. Winstein at UCLA (the University of California at Los Angeles). He began his independent studies at University College Leicester (later Leicester University) in 1947 and left there as Reader in 1961 to become one of the four foundation science professors of Sussex University.

He retired from his Chair in 1988, an event which was marked by a one-day symposium with lectures by some of his former students and by a commemorative issue of the Journal of Organometallic Chemistry (of which he had been a founding regional editor in 1964).

Eaborn can truly be regarded as "the father" of chemistry at Sussex. He was the first Dean (up to 1968) of the School of Molecular Sciences; he provided an environment in which the School flourished. He became the first Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Science), a position he occupied from 1968 to 1972.

My arrival at Sussex was a turning point in my academic career. So many colleagues, particularly those who joined in the early days, share this view; for many, Sussex was their first university appointment. Those early years were full of excitement and comradeship. Eaborn led by innovation and inspiration, rather than by a "hands-on" approach.

New teaching methods were introduced. The traditional boundaries of the subject became meeting points rather than barriers. The week-long "crash courses" were taught by three members of faculty who interrogated not only the students but one another; those held residentially in the Isle of Thorns near Haywards Heath were especially memorable. The MSc course in Organometallic Chemistry was the first of its kind in the UK. Perhaps the most remarkable achievement was the BSc by thesis, in which the student's primary commitment was to a research project supervised by two members with widely differing areas of expertise. Sadly, with the introduction of stringent health and safety regulations, this experiment had to be abandoned.

Eaborn's "Sussex Chemistry" became a magnet for new stellar appointments, of which Joseph Chatt's in 1964, with his Unit of Nitrogen Fixation, was the first, followed by so many others, including as the most prominent by the two Nobel Laureates J.W. Cornforth and A.J.P. Martin, and by A.W. Johnson and R. Mason. By the late 1970s the school numbered seven Fellows of the Royal Society amongst its faculty and many of the then younger colleagues were to achieve distinctions, most notably H.W. Kroto (Nobel Prize, 1997).

Colin Eaborn's researches flourished on collaborations, in the early days, on physical-organic aspects, with R.W. Bott, D.R.M. Walton, R. Taylor and R.A. Jackson. The role of silicon and the other group 14 elements in coordination chemistry began with a brief partnership with J. Chatt, then A. Pidcock and finally, for more than 20 years, with a wider range of elements, with J.D. Smith. Eaborn collaborated with scientists from all over the world; those from Italy, New Zealand and Poland were especially prominent.

He published more than 500 papers and received many awards. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1970, and served as the Senior Honorary Secretary of the Chemical Society (1965-70), as a member of the council of the Royal Society (1978-80, 1988-89), as chairman of two national committees on the relationship between university chemistry courses and the needs of industry, and as the UK representative on the British- Italian Mixed Cultural Commission.

Michael Lappert

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