Prof Tom Cottrell

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Kendall's successor in the Chair of Chemistry was Tom Cottrell (b. Edinburgh, 8 June 1923; d. Stirling, 2 June 1973) educated at George Watson's College and the University of Edinburgh where he graduated B.Sc. in 1943. After graduation he was employed, for most of the time as a research chemist, in the Nobel Division of I.C.I. at Ardeer where he remained until 1958; during this period he published some thirty papers including work on calorimetry, gas kinetics, equations of state, and quantum theory. In 1952 he was awarded the Meldola Medal of the Royal Institute of Chemistry awarded annually to the chemist under thirty years of age who, on the basis of published work, shows most promise. In 1954 his first book 'The Strengths of Chemical Bonds', which has been widely used, was published.

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At Edinburgh, he quickly built up a flourishing research school and published more than 20 papers mainly on relaxation processes in gases and on collisions of electrons with simple molecules; this work involved the development of a number of sophisticated experimental techniques. He published two further books 'Molecular Energy Transfer in Gases' in 1961 and 'Dynamic Aspects of Molecular Energy States' in 1965. He was instrumental in setting up in Edinburgh the first group in Britain to work on molecular beams. At the same time he devoted himself with characteristic energy to teaching which he reorganized to a considerable extent.

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In 1965 he was appointed as the first Principal of the new University of Stirling where he remained until his tragically early death (in 1973).