- James Irvine (chemist)
Sir James Colquhoun Irvine, KBE, FRS, (
May 9 1877 -June 12 1952 ) was a Britishchemist and Principal and Vice-Chancellor of theUniversity of St Andrews from 1921 until his death. As a research chemist, Irvine worked on the application of methylation techniques tocarbohydrates , and isolated the first methylated sugars, trimethyl and tetramethyl glucose.Irvine was born in
Glasgow , and studied at the Royal Technical College, Glasgow, before taking aB.Sc. in Chemistry at St Andrews. From there, he went to theUniversity of Leipzig , where he studied for aPh.D. under Ostwald and Wislicenus. Returning to St Andrews, he was awarded a Doctor of Science degree, and taught Chemistry there. He was madeProfessor of Chemistry in 1909 and Dean of Science in 1912. In 1921, he was appointed Principal. His tenure saw the renovation and restoration of both buildings and traditions, and his works are still talked of today. His commitments spanned further than the University, into higher education in Britain and the colonies.He was made a Fellow of
The Royal Society in 1918, and received honorary doctorates from the Universities of Aberdeen, Cambridge, Columbia, Durham, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Liverpool, McGill, Oxford, Princeton, Toronto, Wales andYale .
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