Frederick Soddy

September 2nd 1877 - September 22nd 1956

An English radiochemist. He worked under Lord Rutherford at McGill Univ. and with Sir William Ramsay at the Univ. of London. After serving (1910-14) as lecturer in physical chemistry and radioactivity at the Univ. of Glasgow, he was professor of chemistry at the Univ. of Aberdeen (1914-19) and at Oxford (1919-36). He was especially noted for his research in radioactivity. With others he discovered a relationship between radioactive elements and the parent compound, which led to his theory of isotopes; for this work he won the 1921 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. His scientific books have become classics and include The Interpretation of Radium (1909, rev. ed. 1922), Matter and Energy (1912), The Chemistry of the Radio-Elements (2 parts, 1911-14), and Atomic Transmutation (1953). An advocate of technocracy and of the social credit movement, he wrote several books setting forth his political and economic views.

In 1914 he was appointed to a chair at the University of Aberdeen, where he worked on research related to World War I.

In 1919 he moved to Oxford University as Dr Lee's Professor of Chemistry, where, in the period up till 1936, he reorganized the laboratories and the syllabus in chemistry.

He received the 1921 Nobel Prize in chemistry for his research in radioactive decay and particularly for his formulation of the theory of isotopes.