Porter (Porter), George

genus. December 6, 1920
English chemist George Porter was born in Steynforte (county of West Yorkshire), the son of John Smith Porter and Alice Ann (Roebuck) Porter. Receiving primary and secondary education in local schools, he won a scholarship and enrolled in Ackroyd, 1938. at Leeds University, to deal with chemistry. When P. was in the last year, he studied radio physics and radio electronics and became a reserve officer of the Royal Navy - an expert on the radar.
After World War II. prepared for graduate work at Emmanuel College, Cambridge University under the leadership of Ronald Norrisha, a pioneer in the field of photochemical studies of reactive molecules. At the initial stage of studying fast chemical reactions P. confused the two streams of gas in the fast moving stream, and analyzed their interactions with each other at various distances. P. Norrish and found, . that this method is useful for studying chemical reactions, . which continue for a few thousandths of a second, . but he did not give the opportunity to study ultrafast reaction, . associated with obtaining unstable, . highly reactive radicals (atoms or molecules, . with at least one unpaired electron).,
. Based on the acquired P
. wartime experience in the field of radio electronics, the two scientists developed a technique known as pulse photolysis. The method is as follows: first, a powerful impetus to the short-wave light causes decomposition of a photosensitive chemical on reactive intermediates. Second, weaker light pulse generated by a well-known period of time after the first, covers the reaction zone, making it possible to determine the absorption spectra of unstable free radicals. By varying the interval between two pulses, P. Norrish and can identify the chemical reactions in the range up to millionths of a second. Replacing the second pulse is a constant source of light and using a detector of light, they were able to observe the concentration of a chemical is continuously as a function of time during the reaction, which was caused by the first light pulse. This method was first allowed to observe and measure free radicals, as well as the kinetics of their chemical behavior.
Received in 1949. doctorate in chemistry, P. was appointed chemist demonstrator at Cambridge University. Here, in collaboration with Norrishem he continued to study the behavior of free radicals in ultra-fast chemical reactions. In 1952, Mr.. he became assistant head of research department of Physical Chemistry. With the installation of flash photolysis, he recorded the absorption spectra of organic free radicals with the 'lifetime' one-thousandth of a second.
. In 1954, when the scientist was an assistant head of research of the British Research Association of artificial silk, he worked on the problems of burnout fabric
. The following year, P. became a professor of physical chemistry at Sheffield University, where in 1963, became a professor of chemistry, led the Department of Chemistry.
In Sheffield P. pulse velocity method applied for studying the mechanism of more complex chemical reactions, such as the reaction between oxygen and hemoglobin in animals, and the properties of chlorophyll in solution. He perfected the method of flash photolysis, using pulsed light sources and lasers, which allow us to investigate the mechanism of chemical reactions, a thousand times faster than those that could be studied using pulses in tubes.
. In 1966, Mr.
. P. succeeded U.L. Bragg on the post of Professor and Director of the Faraday Research Laboratory of the Royal Institution in London.
In 1967. P. and Norrishu was awarded half the Nobel Prize in Chemistry ', for their study of ultrafast chemical reactions with the displacement of the molecular equilibrium very short pulse of energy'. The other half of the prize was awarded to Manfred Eigen, who was studying fast chemical reactions in other ways. 'The primary importance for chemists approach developed by Eigen, and P. Norrishem is their usefulness for solving a variety of problems, - said X. A. Olander in his opening speech on behalf of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. - Very many laboratories around the world through these methods achieve results that previously could not even dream '
In 1949, Mr.. P. married Stella Brook. In the couple's two sons. In his spare time, P. loves to swim. He is also involved in the organization of contacts between scientists from different fields of science, between scientists and people far removed from science. P. was a consultant to several film and television releases. It consists of many political and institutional committees related to science and education.
. In addition to the Nobel Prize, . in the number of awards, . which was awarded the AP, . include: Corday-Morgan Medal of the British Society of Chemistry (1955), . Davy Medal of the Royal Society of London (1971), . Prize Robertson of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences (1978), . Rumford Medal of the Royal Society of London (1978), . Faraday Medal of the British Society of Chemistry (1979) and Medal Logstaffa Royal Society of Chemistry (1981),
. The scientist was devoted to the peers in 1972. He is a member of many academies and scientific societies in t.ch. Royal Society of London, U.S. National Academy of Sciences, the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, Gottingen Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Spanish Academy of Sciences.