Sir John Meurig Thomas is a leading British chemist, primarily known for his work on heterogeneous catalysis. Born on the 15th December 1932 in Llanelli, South Wales, he received his BSc and PhD degrees from the University of Wales, Swansea. After a year's work for the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority, he was appointed in 1958 an Assistant Lecturer (later Senior Lecturer, then Reader) in Chemistry at the University of Wales, Bangor. In 1969 he became Head of Chemistry at the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth, a post he held until 1978 when he took up the Chair of Physical Chemistry at the University of Cambridge. In 1986 he succeeded Sir George Porter as Director of the Royal Institution, and in 1987 the BBC televised his Royal Institution Christmas Lectures. His term as Director ended in 1991, but he remains a Professorial Research Fellow at the RI. He was Master of Peterhouse, Cambridge from 1993 to 2002. He currently holds positions at the Department of Materials Science at University of Cambridge and in the Department of Chemistry of University College London. Among many other honours, he was elected to the Royal Society in 1977 and knighted in 1991. He married Margaret Edwards in 1959; they had two daughters. Margaret died in 2002. The recreations he lists in Who's Who include ancient civilisations and Welsh literature. Heterogeneous catalysis is a chemistry term which describes catalysis where the catalyst is in a different phase (ie. ... Llanelli is a coastal town in Carmarthenshire, Wales, approximately 13 km (8 miles) from Swansea. ... The University of Wales, Swansea was founded in 1920 as University College, Swansea, the fourth college of the University of Wales, following the report of the Haldane Commission into University Education in Wales. ... The United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority was established in 1954 as a statutory corporation to oversee and pioneer the development of nuclear energy within the United Kingdom. ... The University of Wales, Bangor (UWB) is a constituent institution of the University of Wales based in the city of Bangor in the county of Gwynedd in North Wales, United Kingdom. ... The University of Cambridge, located in Cambridge, England, is the second-oldest university in the English-speaking world. ... The Royal Institution of Great Britain was set up in 1799 by the leading British scientists of the age, including Henry Cavendish and its first president George Finch, the 9th Earl of Winchilsea, for diffusing the knowledge, and facilitating the general introduction, of useful mechanical inventions and improvements; and for... Corporate logo of the British Broadcasting Corporation. ... Full name Peterhouse Motto - Named after St Peters Church (now little St Marys Church) Previous names - Established 1284 Sister College Merton College Master The Lord Wilson of Tillyron Location Trumpington Street Undergraduates 271 Graduates 128 Homepage Boatclub Peterhouse is the oldest college in the University of Cambridge. ... Map of the Cambridgeshire area (1904) The city of Cambridge is an old English university town and the administrative centre of the county of Cambridgeshire. ... University College London, commonly known as UCL, is one of the colleges that make up the University of London. ... The premises of the Royal Society in London (first four properties only). ... Whos Who, ISBN 0-713-662-751, is an annual British publication by A & C Black of very short biographies of about 30,000 famous and/or important Britons, published since 1849. ... The term Welsh literature may be used to refer to any literature originating from Wales or by Welsh writers. ...

Much of Thomas's research has involved trying to understand the structure and activity of solid catalysts using techniques such as NMR spectroscopy and high resolution transmission electron microscopy. He has written over 1000 papers and several books, and is one of the most cited authors in the field of heterogeneous catalysis. In recent years he has focussed on designing “green” catalysts for clean technology. Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy is the name given to the technique which exploits the magnetic properties of nuclei. ... Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) is an imaging technique whereby a beam of electrons is focused onto a specimen causing an enlarged version to appear on a fluorescent screen or layer of photographic film (see electron microscope), or can be detected by a CCD camera. ... Heterogeneous catalysis is a chemistry term which describes catalysis where the catalyst is in a different phase (ie. ...

Selected bibliography

• "Introduction to the Principles of Heterogeneous Catalysis”, 1967, Academic Press. (With W.J. Thomas).
• "Principles and Practice of Heterogeneous Catalysis”, 1991, Wiley. (With W.J. Thomas).
• "Michael Faraday and the Royal Institution: The Genius of Man and Place", 1991, Institute of Physics Publishing.

External links

• Prof. Thomas’s page at the Royal Institution.