Abstract
As a consequence of the recognition of University College, Leicester, by the University Grants Committee, the College Council is proceeding to strengthen the teaching staff by the appointment of professors and additional lecturers. Among a number of appointments is that of Dr. L. Hunter to the chair of chemistry. That chemistry should be chosen for one of the first professorships to be established at Leicester is a tribute to Dr. L. Hunter's work as head of the Chemistry Department. Appointed in 1925 to found the Department, Dr. Hunter devoted his first years in Leicester to establishing and consolidating it. Even during those difficult years, and working under a heavy burden of teaching, he never lost sight of the value and importance of research work in any virile teaching department. In translating this ideal into a reality, Dr. Hunter met many difficulties, not the least being the lack of postgraduate scholarships in so young a college. Surmounting these in many novel ways, Dr. Hunter succeeded in establishing a vigorous and steadily growing research school which consisted, immediately prior to the War, of some ten post-graduate research workers. In this work he was loyally supported by his first assistant, Dr. A. Hickling, who is now lecturer in electrochemistry in the University of Liverpool. Even during the difficult years of war, Dr. Hunter's department maintained a steady though reduced output of original work. Dr. Hunter and his co-workers have made important contributions to the chemistry of the hydrogen bond, particularly as it concerns molecular association and tautomerism, and to the chemistry of chelate metallic derivatives of organic compounds. Coming to Leicester from the University College of North Wales, Bangor, he was versed in the traditions of the late Prof. Kennedy Orton's school of chemistry, and his earlier published work concerned the use of chloroamines in the step-wise halogenation of organic compounds.
Article PDF
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Chemistry at University College, Leicester: Prof. L Hunter. Nature 157, 223 (1946). https://doi.org/10.1038/157223a0
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/157223a0