Citation | Dr. Thomas is distinguished for his application of neutron and X-ray scattering methods to problems in physical chemistry, in particular, the developments of the grazing incidence reflection technique and its application to the study of wet interfaces. Wet interfaces are the surfaces separating air-liquid, liquid-liquid, and solid-liquid phases and, although they are of considerable fundamental and technological importance, have been poorly understood until now because of an almost total lack of experimental techniques for investigating them at the molecular level. In 1981 Thomas was the first to propose that neutron reflection be applied to the study of adsorption and has subsequently developed the experimental technique and its analysis to a point where it gives uniquely detailed information about molecular structure at wet interfaces. He was the first to apply it to the air-liquid and solid-liquid interfaces and has been able to reveal the structure of a variety of amphiphilic molecules and polymers at these two interfaces. Examples of systems he has studied by the technique range from small molecules (ethanol/water), through aqueous surfactants, to the binding of proteins to phospholipid monolayers. The technique is rapidly being adopted by many groups throughout the world, but Thomas is the leading practitioner. Thomas has also published original research work on X-ray diffraction from adsorbed layers of gases on solids, the dynamics of rotation and vibration of adsorbed molecules, the nature of the swelling of clays, the structure of polymer memebranes, and earlier, on hydrogen bonded complexes in the vapour phase. |