London is full of memorials, a surprising number of which commemorate scientists and medics. Around 11% of the capital’s blue plaques are dedicated to the great and good in these fields. And scientific statuary can also field a good team, with the likes of Faraday, Jenner, Lister and Newton resplendent and immortal in bronze and stone. (Strangely, there is no significant statue of Darwin in London.)
This heritage was further enriched this week as the Royal Society of Chemistry presented a brace of their ‘Chemical Landmark plaques’ to Imperial College. These are the 18th and 19th such plaques to be awarded to sites of national chemical achievement.
One commemorates Sir Derek Barton (1918–1998). While at Imperial, he won the 1969 Nobel Prize for Chemistry for his pioneering work on conformational analysis of compounds. More (or perhaps less) colourfully, he also developed invisible inks for the intelligence services during WWII.
The second plaque is dedicated to Sir Geoffrey Wilkinson (1921–1996). He also won the chemistry Nobel, in 1973, for discovering the organometallic ‘sandwich’ compound ferrocene.
The plaques will be positioned outside the Department of Chemistry’s entrance.