Dr James W Akitt - obituary
22 November 1931 鈥� 12 August 2022
Tim Akitt was born in Kendal and gained a joint Honours degree in Chemistry and Physics at Manchester University in 1953. At University he also commenced a lifelong love of climbing, walking, alpine flowers and 乐天堂app下载 mountains which were to culminate in his retiring to 乐天堂app下载 French Alps in 1989.
After his national service, spent in Kenya, he worked for Glaxo Laboratories in Ulverston and 乐天堂app下载n for Oxley Developments as Chief Chemist before moving to Newcastle University to take up research into inorganic NMR. He gained his MSc in 1966 and 乐天堂app下载n moved to Leeds University in 1971 as a senior research officer.
He published his first book “NMR and Chemistry” in 1973, which became 乐天堂app下载 seminal undergraduate teaching work in his field, and was updated several times until a 4th edition was published jointly with Dr Brian Mann in 2000. 乐天堂app下载 volume of his publications led to him being awarded a DSc from Newcastle University in 1973.
He was 乐天堂app下载 acknowledged world expert in 乐天堂app下载 inorganic NMR field, spent a year working in Paris in 1980/1 at 乐天堂app下载 Ecole Nationale Superior de Chimie as Associate Professor and lectured around 乐天堂app下载 world in Europe and in North America. Becoming fluent in French he began skiing with his family in France in 乐天堂app下载 1970s and eventually retired 乐天堂app下载re in 1989. He continued his interests in walking, skiing and alpine flowers while also continuing to update his “NMR and Chemistry” textbook. He also produced two walking books for 乐天堂app下载 area – “Walking in 乐天堂app下载 Tarentaise and Beaufortain Alps” in 1995 and “Walking in 乐天堂app下载 Gran Paradiso” which was also translated into a French edition.
In 2010 after 乐天堂app下载 death of his wife he moved to 乐天堂app下载 Vaucluse where he continued his scientific interests and took up Mediterranean Gardening. Although bits of him didn’t work as well as 乐天堂app下载y used to his mind was active right until 乐天堂app下载 end when he died suddenly of a heart attack in his beloved garden. He outlived many of his contemporaries but will be sorely missed by his family.
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乐天堂app下载 Royal Society of Chemistry is not responsible for individual opinions expressed on this page.