Sir John Edward Lennard-Jones KBE, FRS

John Edward Lennard-Jones was born in Leigh, Lancashire and educated at Leigh Grammar School where he specialised in classics. In 1912 he entered Manchester University where he changed his subject to mathematics. After First World War service in the Royal Flying Corps he returned to Manchester as Lecturer in Mathematics, 1919-1922. In 1922, on the advice of Sydney Chapman, he applied for and was elected to a Senior 1851 Exhibition which enabled him to work in Cambridge where he became a research student at Trinity College (Ph.D. 1924). He moved to Bristol University as Reader in Mathematical Physics, 1925-1927, and Professor of Theoretical Physics, 1927-1932, returning to Cambridge as Plummer Professor of Theoretical Chemistry, 1932-1953. In this, the first Chair of Theoretical Chemistry to be created in Britain, Lennard-Jones built up a research school applying concepts of quantum mechanics and interatomic forces to phenomena in physics and organic chemistry. His first graduate student was C.A. Coulson. In the Second World War Lennard-Jones served as Chief Superintendent of Armament Research, 1942-1945. He remained in government service for a further year as Director of Scientific Research, Ministry of Supply, before returning to Cambridge in 1946. In 1953 he became Principal of University College of North Staffordshire (later Keele University) but died in 1954 when he had been in the post less than a year.

He was elected FRS in 1933 (Davy Medal 1953) and knighted in 1946

References

1. © The above material is taken from the National Cataloguing Unit for the Archives of Contemporary Scientists database, and reproduced with kind permision from Dr T. E. Powell. The above material is copyrighted and may not be reproduced without permission from the aforementioned catalogue.