George Porter, Baron Porter of Luddenham, b. 1920

George Porter was born in Stainforth in Yorkshire on 6 December 1920. He was educated at Thorne Grammar School, 1931-1938, and Leeds University, 1938-1941 where he was Ackroyd Scholar. The teaching of M.G. Evans at Leeds was influential in inspiring an interest in physical chemistry and chemical kinetics. During his final honours year he took a special course in radio physics which led to service, 1941-1945, as a Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve Radar Officer in the Western Approaches and the Mediterranean. His wartime training in electronics and pulse techniques was to prove useful later in suggesting new approaches to chemical problems.

In 1945 he went to the University of Cambridge to undertake postgraduate research with R.G.W. Norrish in the field of chemical kinetics and photochemistry. His research involved the study, by flow techniques, of free radicals produced in gaseous photochemical reactions. The idea of using short pulses of light, of shorter duration than the lifetime of the free radicals, occurred to Porter, and he began the construction of an apparatus for this purpose in the early summer of 1947 and, together with Norrish, applied this to the study of gaseous free radicals and to combustion. Their collaboration continued until 1954 when Porter left Cambridge. His subsequent work was mainly concerned with showing how the flash-photolysis method could be extended and applied to a great variety of problems in physics, chemistry and biology. He has made contributions to other techniques, particularly that of radical trapping and matrix stabilisation.

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