Keith J. Laidler

Infobox Scientist
box_width = 300px
name = Keith J. Laidler


image_width =
caption = Keith James Laidler (1916-2003)
birth_date = January 3,1916
birth_place = Liverpool, England
death_date = August 26, 2003
death_place =
residence = United States
Canada
United Kingdom
citizenship = Canadian
nationality =
ethnicity = English
fields = Physical chemist
workplaces = nowrap|The Catholic University of America
University of Ottawa
alma_mater = University of Oxford
Princeton University
doctoral_advisor = Henry Eyring
academic_advisors = nowrap|Cyril Norman Hinshelwood
doctoral_students = Joseph Weber
known_for = Chemical kinetics
author_abbrev_bot =
author_abbrev_zoo =
influences =
influenced =
awards =
religion =


footnotes =

Keith James Laidler (1916–2003), born England, was notable as a pioneer in chemical kinetics and authority on the physical chemistry of enzymes.

Education

He received his BA (1937), MA (1955), and DSc (1956) degrees from Trinity College, Oxford University. His MA and DSc were in the area of chemical kinetics under Cyril Norman Hinshelwood. He completed his PhD in 1940 from Princeton University, with a thesis entitled: "The Kinetics of Reactions in Condensed and Heterogeneous Systems," under Henry Eyring. He was a National Research Council, Canada Postdoctoral Fellow (1940–1942).

Career

After a decade at the Catholic University of America (1946-1955), he spent the remainder of his academic career at the University of Ottawa (1955–1981), where he served as Chairman of the Department of Chemistry and Vice-Dean of the Faculty of Science. He was the author of 13 books and more than 250 articles.

Honors

Laidler’s numerous honors include the University of Ottawa’s Award for Excellence in Research (1971), the Chemical Institute of Canada’s Union Carbide Award for Chemical Education (1974) as well as the Queen’s Jubilee Medal (1977), the Centenary Medal (1977), and the Henry Marshall Tory Medal (1987), all from the Royal Society of Canada, and an honorary degree from Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada (1997). For his work in the history of physical chemistry the American Chemical Society’s Division of the History of Chemistry awarded him its Dexter Award "for outstanding contributions to the history of chemistry" (1996).

Laidler was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, who described him "as one of the twentieth-century pioneers in the remarkable progress made in chemical kinetics leading to the development of transition state theory which provides the modern kinetic theory. Laidler's work includes seminal contributions in several areas of the field: gas phase reactions; kinetic aspects of reactivity of electronically excited molecules and construction of potential energy surfaces for such processes; development of treatments for kinetics and mechanisms for surface reactions and solution reactions, introducing modern concepts of solvation through dielectric polarization effects in the treatment of ionic redox reactions and of reactions producing or consuming ions; gas phase free-radical reactions involving pyrolysis and other thermal decomposition processes; and … the kinetics of enzyme-catalyzed reactions."

Decline and Death

Laidler retired in 1981 but continued to lecture as professor emeritus long after that. He died on August 26, 2003. In 2004, the Canadian Society for Chemistry renamed their Norana Award as the Kieth Laidler Award in his memory.

See also

* Chemical kinetics
* Enzymes

References

Notes

External links

* [http://www.scs.uiuc.edu/~mainzv/HIST/awards/Dexter%20Papers/LaidlerDexterBioJJB.pdf Laidler biography]
* [http://en.scientificcommons.org/keith_j_laidler Laidler at Scientific Commons]
* [http://www.science.ca/scientists/scientistprofile.php?pID=187 Laidler's Science Canada profile]