Alan Carrington

Background

Carrington, Alan was born on January 6, 1934 in London. Son of Albert and Constance (Nelson) Carrington.

Education

Carrington was educated at Colfe"s School and the where he was awarded the degrees of Bachelor of Science and Doctor of Philosophy While still a Doctor of Philosophy student, Carrington spent a year as a research fellow at the University of Minnesota.

Career

Carrington was a Fellow of Downing College, Cambridge between 1959 and 1967, where he worked closely with Christopher Longuet-Higgins, and became assistant director of research in 1963. In 1967 Carrington returned to the University of Southampton as one of the youngest professors of chemistry in Britain at the time., becoming a Royal Society Research Professor from 1979 until his retirement in 1999. Carrington moved his Royal Society Research Professorship from Southampton to the University of Oxford during the period 1984-1987, during which his laboratory was in the (then) Physical Chemistry Laboratories on South Parks Road.

While at Oxford Carrington was a Fellow of Jesus College, Oxford, Carrington moved his research professorship back to the University of Southampton in 1987, where he remained until his retirement from the University of Southampton in 1999.

Carrington"s earlier contributions to chemical physics were in the fields of electron spin resonance (esr) spectroscopy, and magnetic resonance in general. During this period Carrington authored the classic monograph on Magnetic Resonance with Andrew McLachlan, "Introduction to Magnetic Resonance with Applications to Chemistry and Chemical Physics".

Carrington"s later work was concerned with examining the structure of molecular ions in energy regions close to their dissociation limits. This work on the spectroscopy of simple molecular ions provided accurate measurements with which theoretical calculations could usefully be compared.

In particular, his work on the simplest diatomic and triatomic molecules gave rise to measurements that have not yet been matched by theoretical calculations.

Much of this work is reviewed in the classic monograph authored with John M Brown, "Rotational Spectroscopy of Diatomic Molecules".

Achievements

• Alan Carrington has been listed as a noteworthy Chemistry educator by Marquis Who's Who.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Introduction to Magnetic Resonance

    (Intended as an introduction to magnetic resonance, but eq...)

  • Microwave spectroscopy of free radicals.
  • Introduction to magnetic resonance with applications to chemistry and chemical physics (Harper's chemistry series)
  • Microwave Spectroscopy of Free Radicals

Membership

Fellow Royal Society (Davy medal 1992), Royal Society Chemistry (president Faraday division since 1997, Faraday medal 1986), Institute of Physics. Member Commander of the Order of the British Empire, National Academy of Sciences (United States), American Academy Arts and Sciences (foreign honorary).

Interests

• Avocation: music (piano, organ).

Connections

Married Noreen Hilary Taylor, November 7, 1959. Children: Sarah Elizabeth, Rebecca Anne, Simon Francis.

Father:

Albert Carrington

Mother:

Constance (Nelson) Carrington

Spouse:

Noreen Hilary Taylor

child:

Simon Francis Carrington

child:

Rebecca Anne Carrington

child:

Sarah Elizabeth Carrington