Meredith Gwynne Evans

Meredith Gwynne Evans (born December 2, 1904 in Atherton (Manchester) , † December 25, 1952 in Manchester ) was a British chemist who made important contributions to the Eyring theory (transition state theory).

Life

Evans was the son of an elementary school principal, attended the Leigh Grammar School on a scholarship and studied chemistry at the University of Manchester from 1923 with a bachelor's degree with top grades in 1926. He was there from 1929 Assistant Lecturer . There was a physical chemistry group in Manchester (FP Burt, DH Bangham, JBM Herbert) and his interest in theoretical chemistry was also stimulated by Arthur Lapworth . At that time, the application of the new quantum mechanics in theoretical chemistry was a current research area, and Evans also had contacts with the physicists at the university around Lawrence Bragg and Douglas Rayner Hartree . From 1932 he was Sir Clement Royde Scholar, which gave him freedom in the choice of research direction. In 1934 he was a Rockefeller Fellow at Princeton University , where he researched in the laboratory of Hugh Stott Taylor . At that time, deuterium had just been discovered and Evans was involved in experiments on the different chemical behavior of the two hydrogen isotopes. In 1935 he became a lecturer in Manchester. In Manchester he worked with Michael Polanyi , another pioneer of the Eyring theory who also became his friend. He had just taken up the chair of physical chemistry in Manchester and made a name for himself for the application of quantum mechanics to chemical reactions. The fundamental work on Eyring theory with the Eyring equation published independently in 1935 Eyring in Princeton and Polanyi and Evans in Manchester. Polanyi and Evans studied the kinetics of a variety of reactions, including the forces between atoms and molecules, which Evans later extended to study the structure of liquids and solutions. In 1939 he became professor of physical chemistry at the University of Leeds . During the Second World War he worked on various questions of physical chemistry in a military context. He was in a group founded by RW Whytlaw-Gray that worked for the Chemical Defense Experimental Establishment of the Ministry of Supply. From 1949 he was again a professor at the University of Manchester.

In 1947 he became a Fellow of the Royal Society .

Two of his brothers also became professors, one chemistry professor at Cardiff, the other reader in bacteriology at Manchester University.

literature

• Harry Work Melville: Meredith Gwynne Evans 1904–1952, Biographical Memoirs Fellows Royal Society, Volume 8, 1953, Issue 22, doi : 10.1098 / rsbm.1953.0006
• CEH Bawn, Hugh Taylor, Muriel Tomlinson, Harold Hartley: Obituary notices: Meredith Gwynne Evans, Journal of the Chemical Society 1956, pp. 1916-1924, first page

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Eyring, The activated complex in chemical reactions, J. Chem. Phys., Volume 3, 1935, pp. 107-115
2. ↑ Evans, Polanyi: Some applications of the transition state method to the calculation of reaction velocities, especially in solution, Trans. Faraday Soc., Volume 31, 1935, pp. 875-894