William Joseph Elford

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William Joseph Elford (born January 4, 1900 in Malmesbury , † February 14, 1952 in London ) was a British microbiologist .

Life

William Joseph Elford came from a family of craftsmen associated with Malmesbury, Wiltshire for many generations . His father, Joseph Elford, was to continue this tradition, but chose the insurance industry. William Joseph was traditionally baptized William as the firstborn, also based on the historian William of Malmesbury (1080–1143). William Joseph Elford had two brothers and two sisters, none of whom had demonstrated outstanding skills in the field of science. Even at school he showed a great gift for science and won many prizes; especially in chemistry and therefore attended the local grammar school . From 1917 he studied mathematics, chemistry, English and French in London, but was also active in sports and successfully played cricket, hockey and lawn tennis. In the final year of World War I , Elford joined the Royal Engineers but was no longer sent abroad. Just a year later, he continued his studies and got a scholarship to Bristol University . Here he studied with James William McBain , a Canadian chemistry professor, and received awards in chemistry in 1923. He played cricket and hockey for his university and was elected president of the University Chemical Society . From 1923 to 1925 he studied the chemical processes involved in soap boiling in Bristol . In 1924 Elford received a professorship and a PhD from Bristol University. Professor McBain considered Elford to be one of his most gifted students and admired his extraordinary combination of intellectual and experimental skills. His work as a doctoral student in Bristol was characterized by the combination of novel, elegant and optical techniques with rigorous physico-chemical methods.

William Joseph Elford worked at the National Institute for Medical Research from 1925 , working on microbiological problems and cell biology . He was the first to determine the size of many viruses using ultrafiltration methods . He was elected to the Royal Society in 1950 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ William Joseph Elford 1900-1952. In: Obituary Notices of Fellows of the Royal Society. 8, 1997, p. 149, doi : 10.1098 / rsbm.1952.0010 .
  2. ↑ James Walker, RP Linstead, FE Simon: Obituary notices: William Joseph Elford, 1900–1952; George Armand Robert Kon, 1892–1951; JR Park, 1902-1952. In: J. Chem. Soc. 0, 1952, p. 4549, doi : 10.1039 / JR9520004549 .
personal data
SURNAME Elford, William Joseph
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British microbiologist
DATE OF BIRTH 4th January 1900
PLACE OF BIRTH Malmesbury
DATE OF DEATH February 14, 1952
Place of death London