Dr. P. D. Ritchie

Abstract

DR. P. D. RITCHIE, of the Birmingham Central Technical College, has been appointed to succeed Prof. W. M. Curnming in the Young chair of technical chemistry, and he takes up his duties in January. Recently, Dr. Ritchie has been especially interested in plastics and is the author of "Chemistry of Plastics and High Polymers"; nevertheless, his experience has been very varied. His thesis for the Ph.D. degree at the University of St. Andrews in 1932 was based on stereochemical problems in his work with Prof. Alex. McKenzie. During two years with the Explosives Group of the I.C.I., he studied the pyrolytic synthesis of ethenoid monomers. As head of the Scientific Department of the Courtauld Institute of Art, he worked on the constitution of ancient glass and ceramics; and as chief and advisory chemist to A. Reyrolle and Co., of Hebburn-on-Tyne, he secured patents on gaseous and high-polymer insulating media. After two years as head of the Chemistry Department of Leeds College of Technology, he was appointed head of the Chemistry Department of the Birmingham Central Technical College as successor to Dr. J. A. Newton Friend. In Birmingham he has rendered valuable service in the development of the Plastics Laboratories, and in the scheme for merging the fuel, plastics and other technological subjects for the formation of a Department of Chemical Engineering. He strongly advocated the appointment of research assistants, and this has recently been adopted. During his term of office a strengthening of the bond between industry and the Chemistry Department of the Birmingham Central Technical College has been very evident.