Professor William Griffith

Winner: 2020 Award for Exceptional Service

Imperial College London and RSC Historical Group

For outstanding service to the Royal Society of Chemistry through our Historical Group and for advising on activities celebrating the history of the chemical sciences.

Celebrate Professor William Griffith

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There is so much that chemistry offers – the thrill of discovering new reactions or preparation of new chemicals, particularly when these can be practically applied, e.g. to new medicines, vaccines etc. There is (particularly in these difficult times) a great need for new approaches to manufacturing in the chemical industry.
Professor William Griffith

Professor Griffith’s chemical work was mainly centred on compounds of the six platinum metals, ruthenium, osmium, rhodium, iridium, palladium and platinum. Some of the molecules of these had unusual shapes, which he investigated, and some (particularly of ruthenium and osmium) were very effective as catalysts in the oxidation of sensitive organic groups. Professor Griffith and his team collaborated with Professor Steve Ley (at IC and then Cambridge) in using such compounds to make useful pharmaceutical drugs.

His writings on the history of chemistry include papers on Charles Hatchett (1765–1847), a Londoner who discovered the element niobium in 1802; on Marie Curie who received two Nobel Prizes; on ‘Joseph Priestley in London’; on Charles Darwin’s and Charles Dickens’ interest in chemistry; on Mendeleev’s difficulties in accommodating the platinum-group metals in his Periodic Table; and on the curious tale of the discovery of palladium by Wollaston (1766–1828) in 1802.

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Professor Griffith was born in West Norwood, London, in 1936. He had been fascinated by chemistry since his dad bought him a chemistry set. After an Entrance scholarship to Imperial College in 1954, Professor Griffith got a first in chemistry and studied a PhD with Geoffrey Wilkinson (later Sir Geoffrey, Nobel laureate), focusing on transition metal nitrosyl complexes. He joined the Chemical Society (which later became the Royal Society of Chemistry) in 1958.

In 1960, Professor Griffith went with a Fulbright award as assistant lecturer to the University of Chicago, working with Henry Taube (who was later a Nobel laureate). Professor Griffith moved to Stanford in early 1962, returning to Imperial College later in the year as a lecturer, becoming full professor in 1994, Emeritus Professor and Distinguished Research Fellow in 2003. He held visiting professorships and lectureships at universities in Vancouver (UBC), Durban, Auckland and Zurich (ETH), and made British Council and Royal Society visits across the world.

Professor Griffith’s research work produced 270 inorganic chemistry papers mainly on specific organic oxidation catalysis by platinum-group metal complexes and on Raman spectroscopy. He has published on all the 27 transition metals and 13 of the lanthanides, and has written eight books on platinum metal chemistry.

He has written 15 chemical-historical papers and in 2017 wrote a book with Hannah Gay titled The Chemistry Department at Imperial College London: A History 1845–2000. He was secretary of the RSC Historical Group from 2002–2012 and is now Membership Secretary.

Q+A

What advice would you give to a young person considering a career in chemistry?

Go for it – chemistry is the most fundamental and exciting of sciences, and there are always new things to discover and challenges to meet.

Why do you think it is important to inspire people with chemistry?

There is so much that chemistry offers – the thrill of discovering new reactions or preparation of new chemicals, particularly when these can be practically applied, e.g. to new medicines, vaccines etc. There is (particularly in these difficult times) a great need for new approaches to manufacturing in the chemical industry.

What is special about the networks of the Royal Society of Chemistry?

These constitute perhaps the most valuable functions of the RSC. They provide valuable fora for collaboration – written, spoken and social – between chemists of similar interests. My interactions have been mainly with the Historical Chemistry Group, which has 700 members, with the Dalton Division and the Chiltern and Middlesex Local Section.

What is your favourite element?

Ruthenium – it has been the subject of many of my publications, both for its record number of oxidation states (eleven), the reactivity and diversity of its coordination chemistry.

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