John Meurig Thomas - Curriculum Vitae#

Present Positions Held:

• Honorary Professor of Materials Science, University of Cambridge (since 2002)
• Emeritus Professor of Chemistry, Davy Faraday Research Laboratory, Royal Institution of Great Britain, London (since 2002)
• Honorary Distinguished Professor of Materials Chemistry, Cardiff University, Wales (since 2005)
• Distinguished Visiting Professor of Nanoscience, University of South Carolina, USA (since 2005)
• Honorary Distinguished Professor of Materials Chemistry, University of Southampton (since 2006)

Positions formerly held:

• Director, Royal Institution of Great Britain (1986-1991)
• Director, Davy Faraday Research Laboratory (1986-1991)
• Fullerian Professor of Chemistry, Royal Institution (1988-1994)
• Head, Department of Physical Chemistry, University of Cambridge and Professorial Fellow at Kings College, Cambridge (1978-1986)
• Master (Head) of Peterhouse (College), University of Cambridge (1993-2002)
• Deputy Pro-Chancellor, Federal University of Wales (1991-1994)
• Professor of Chemistry and Head of Department , University College, Wales, Aberystwyth (1969-1978)
• Assistant Lecturer, Lecturer, Reader in Chemistry, University of Wales, Bangor (1958-1969)

National and International Awards:

• 2007- The International Precious Metal Institute Distinguished Achievement Award “for pioneering contributions to the field of heterogeneous catalysis using precious metals”.
• 2005- Sir George Stokes Gold Medal, Royal Society of Chemistry “for pioneering and innovative electron based nanochemical analysis”.
• 2004- Guilio Natta Gold Medal, Italian Chemical Society “for outstanding work in catalysis”.
• 2003- Linus Pauling Gold Medal, Stanford University “for contributions to the advancement of science”.
• 1999- First recipient of American Chemical Society Award “for Creative Research in Heterogeneous and Homogeneous Catalysis”;
• 1997- Honorary Medal Krakow Academy of Knowledge Poland “for Distinguished Public Service”;
• 1996- Semenov Centenary Medal, Russian Academy of Sciences
• 1996- Honorary Medal, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw
• 1996- Longstaff Medal, Royal Society of Chemistry
• 1995- Willard Gibbs Gold Medal of the American Chemistry Society (first British chemist to be honoured in 80 years): “for pioneering work in solid-state chemistry and materials science….. His original work (on solids) has led to major advances in the science and technology of absorbents and catalysts”;New mineral, meurigite, named in his honour by International Mineralogical Association to recognise his pioneering work in geochemistry.
• 1994- Davy Medal of the Royal Society (its premier medal in the Physical Sciences)
• 1992- Messel Gold Medal, Society of Chemical Industry, awarded biennially “for meritorious distinction in science, literature, industry or public affairs”
• 1989- Faraday Medal, Royal Society of Chemistry (its premier medal, awarded every three years) Sesquincentenary Medal of the Royal Microscopical Society

Other Medals

• Hugo Muller Medal (1983)
• Solid-State Chemistry Medal (1978)
• Tilden Medal (1973)
• Corday Morgan Medal (1969) (all from the Royal Society of Chemistry)
• The Pettinos Prize (first recipient) American Carbon Society (1969)
• Bruce-Preller Prize, Royal Society of Edinburgh (1989)
• Silver Medal “for services to science celebrating 750th Anniversary of the University of Siena” (2005)

Honorary Doctorates from:
Wales (LL.D); Council of National Academic Awards (D.Litt); Heriot-Watt, Edinburgh (D.Sc); Birmingham (D.Sc); Open University (D.Univ); Lyon, France, (D.Sc); Complutense, Madrid (D.Sc); Glamorgan (D.Sc); Western Ontario, Canada (D.Sc); Eindhoven, The Netherlands (D.Sc); Hull (D.Sc); Surrey (D.Univ); Aberdeen (D.Sc); American University in Cairo (D.Sc); Turin, Italy (D.Sc); Clarkson, USA (D.Sc); Sydney, Australia (D.Sc); Osaka Prefecture Univ., Japan
Honorary Foreign Fellowships or Memberships:

• 2006- European Academy of Sciences
• 2005- Mendeleev Chemical Society, Moscow
• 2004- Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, Rome
• 2003- Göttingen Academy of Sciences
• 1999- Royal Spanish Academy of Sciences
• 1998- Polish Academy of Sciences
• 1998- Hungarian Academy of Sciences
• 1995- Third World Academy of Sciences, Trieste
• 1994- Academy of Sciences of Venezuela
• 1994- Russian Academy of Sciences
• 1993- Royal Society of Edinburgh
• 1992- American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia
• 1991- Engineering Academy of Japan
• 1990- American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Cambridge
• 1989- Academia Europaea
• 1985- Indian National Academy, New Delhi
• 1981- Indian Academy, Bangalore

John Meurig Thomas holds over forty honorary fellowships in universities and colleges in the UK and elsewhere in the world. A Fellow of the Royal Society since 1977, in 1999 he was elected Honorary Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering for work that “has profoundly added to the science base of heterogeneous catalysis leading to the commercial exploitation of zeolites through engineering processes”. Also in 1999 he was made (hon) Fellow of the Institute of Physics.
Served as Government Advisor on the Council on Applied Research and Development (1982-85) at the Cabinet Office, Whitehall, London.
Chairman of CHEMRAWN (Chemical Research Applied to World Needs) of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (1988–1992).
President of the Faraday Division of the R.S.C., and of the Chemistry Division of the British Association for Advancement of Science; of the London International Youth Science Festival; and a Trustee of the National Science Museum (1990-5) and of the Natural History Museum (1989-91). He is the vice-President of the Cambridge University Musical Society (1994- ).
In 2000, the Electron Microscopy and Microanalysis Society of the Americas held a three-day symposium in his honour at their annual convention in Philadelphia.
He has broadcast extensively on radio and television in the UK and abroad, and given numerous popular lectures to lay audiences world-wide and lunch-time lectures at the National Portrait Gallery, London.

Named Lectureships Abroad and in the UK:
John Meurig Thomas has given over a hundred of these world wide, including those named in honour of: Rutherford (New Zealand); Van’t Hoff (Royal Academy Netherlands), Helmholtz (Berlin), Darwin (Cambridge), Debye (Utrecht), Pauling (Caltech, Stanford and Oregon), Larmor (Cambridge), Baker (Cornell), Woodward (Harvard and Yale), Pitzer (Berkeley), Krishnan (New Delhi), Bernal (London), Ziegler (Germany),Liversidge (Sydney, Polanyi (Toronto), Sunner (Lund, Sweden), Willard Gibbs (ACS, Chicago), Faraday (RSC, London), Birch (Canberra), Hund (Stuttgart), Watson (Caltech), Drickamer, (Urbana) Taylor (Penn State), Guggenheim (Reading), Rogers (Michigan), Shipley (Clarkson), Oersted (T U Denmark) Bakerian (Royal Society, London).
In 1986 he was a plenary speaker, along with Professor Ken-ichi Fukui, at the Japan Key Technology event, Tokyo, to honour the sixtieth year of the reign of the Emperor of Japan.

In 2006, plenary speaker at Tercentenary Celebrations of birth of Benjamin Franklin, American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia.

Short-term Visiting Professorships have been held at:

• Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa
• University of Florence
• Technical University, Eindhoven
• Ecole Nationale Superieure, Paris
• Jawaharal Nehru Center for Advanced Studies, Bangalore
• Max Planck Institute, Mülheim
• Weizmann Institute of Science
• Universities of Western Ontario, McMaster and Calgary
• University of California, Berkeley
• Texas “A and M” University
• Yale University
• Cornell University
• Indiana University
• Northwestern University
• Pennsylvania State University and Arizona State University
• California Institute of Technology
• University of Sydney
• Ruprecht–Karls–Universität, Heidelberg

John Meurig Thomas - CV longer version