John came to Oxford in 1960 on an 1851 Fellowship to do a doctorate in the area of magnetic resonance with Rex Richards. Within 5 years he had completed his doctorate, obtained a full university post, and started a research programme using the very new techniques associated with the scattering of neutrons.
John’s early neutron research was done at the reactors at Harwell from about 1963...
Reflections on John White’s Contributions to Australian Science, together with his Role in Enhancing Pan-Asian Collaboration
John was born near Newcastle in New South Wales, and got his start in science at Sydney University. He returned to Australia in 1985 and joined the Research School of Chemistry at the Australian National University, where he remained until his death last...
In 1964 John White was a fellow of St Johns College Oxford working with Rex Richards on electron nuclear double resonance spectroscopy (ENDOR). A recent chance meeting with Peter Egelstaff from AERE Harwell had interested John in the uses of neutron scattering spectroscopy in chemical sciences, and particularly in the possibilities of using deuterium labelling. At the time Julia S-D (now...
Throughout John White’s long career, he provided inspirational leadership in the UK, Europe and in his native Australia, expanding the frontiers of Neutron Scattering from its traditional physics focus to address wider problems in chemistry and soft matter science.
As Director of ILL, he successfully led the instrument renewal programme – the ‘deuxieme souffle’ – expanding the use of cold...
Photographic glimpses of the neutron-related life I shared with John over almost 60 years
