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Sir Gordon Cox (1906-1996)

Sir Ernest Gordon Cox, KBE, TD, FRS joined Sir William Bragg's group at the Royal lnstitution in 1927 and made his first X-ray measurements on aluminium acetylacetone with W. T. Astbury. When Bragg suggested that Cox study the crystal structure of benzene, X-ray measurements at -22°C showed that the space group was Pbca and favoured a flat-ring molecule with C-C bonds of about 1.42Å. Cox did pioneer work on the structures of sugars, coordination compounds and the crystal structure of vitamin C. He joined the Territorial Army in 1936, and worked on explosives in the early war years. In 1945 he built a Dept of Inorganic and Structural Chemistry at Leeds. He took particular interest in the design of a Weissenberg camera and the use of Hollerith punched-card equipment. Cox's early effort to obtain a grant for NMR work was thwarted by a Dept of Scientific and Industrial Research committee who doubted that the magnetic properties of nuclei would be useful in chemistry. Of his 40 or more research students, many have attained distinction. High grade structure determinations that flowed from his team, concerned relatively simple molecules studied with the object of establishing reliable values for standard bonds (e.g. C-S, C=S etc.), or of determining novel structures. His administrative skills and good sense drew him increasingly into the general running of the university. He was Chairman of the X-ray Analysis Group, one of the precursors of the BCA, from 1956 to 1959. He was appointed Secretary of the Agricultural Research Council in 1960. In a tribute to his work appearing at the time of his retirement, the following appeared "Never was there a more impressive, energetic advocate of the value to society of long-term serious scientific inquiry".

Durward Cruckshank