About
Professor James W Emsley is Professor Emeritus of Chemistry within Chemistry at the University of Southampton.
Jim Emsley graduated with a 2(i) degree in Chemistry from the University of Leeds in 1956, followed by postgraduate work in the Department of Inorganic and Structural Chemistry, supervised by J.A.S. Smith. The research was to use NMR spectroscopy to study single crystals of thiourea, urea and formamide, and led to the award of a PhD in 1960. The following two years were spent in the University of Liverpool as an ICI Fellow, working with Les Sutlciffe and Jim Feeney, on applications of NMR to liquid samples. Work was also started on writing a textbook on High Resolution NMR Spectroscopy with Les and Jim, which was published in 1965 in two volumes.
The period 1962 to 1967 was spent in the University of Durham, first as a Research Assistant, and then a Lecturer in Chemistry. The research done in this period was mainly applying high resolution NMR to the study of fluorinated organic compounds. it was during this period that together with Les Sutcliffe and Jim Feeney we started a new series, Progress in NMR Spectroscopy, of edited reviews on all aspects of NMR spectroscopy, which has continued to the present time.
A move to the University of Southampton was made in 1967, at first to a Lectureship in Chemistry, with subsequent promotions to Senior Lecturer , Reader, Professor. Retirement in 1999 was followed by two years as a Leverhulme Senior Emeritus Fellow, and since that time as a Professor Emeritus in Chemistry.
Research in Southampton has focussed on the information that can be obtained on liquid crystalline samples using NMR spectroscopy.