| Description | Papers and correspondence of Nobel Prize-winning chemist George Porter. It includes extensive correspondence, largely arranged by surname of correspondent, and covers much of Porter's career. It represents the records that Porter brought to Imperial College when his research group moved there in 1986, and the material that accumulated there. Much of the material, therefore, dates from the 1980s onwards, reflecting the latter period of Porter's career, and includes records of domestic and international travel for conferences, events, and lectures. |
| AdminHistory | George Porter was born on the 6 December 1920 in Stainforth, South Yorkshire. He attended Thorne Grammar School before enrolling at Leeds University in 1938, on the Ackroyd Scholarship. Porter served with the Royal Navy during World War II, before going onto Cambridge to pursue his postgraduate studies. In 1949 he married Stella Brooke.
At Cambridge he worked under the supervision on R G W Norrish FRS, and began his work in photochemistry. After a year spent working in industry at the British Rayon Research Association, Porter moved took up a position as Chair of Physical Chemistry at Sheffield University and became Firth Professor of Chemistry in 1963. During his work time at Sheffield, Porter became increasingly involved with the work of the Royal Institution, joining them as Director in 1966, a position that he held for 20 years. In 1985 Porter became President of the Royal Society, at the same time he moved his research base to Imperial College.
Throughout his career George Porter received a number of honours and prizes. He was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1960, and won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1967. He won the Society's Davy Medal in 1971 and the Copley Medal in 1992. |