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A Tribute to PI- ,ofessor Lovat V. C. Rees on the Occasion of H

Tribute

[is 70th Birthday

Lovat Rees was born in Aberdeen, Scotland, on Novem- ber 7, 1927. He attended Robert Gordon’s College in that city and has retained contact with the college throughout his life, serving for over thirty years on the Committee of Old Gordonians London Branch. This period included two years as President.

Upon leaving Robert Gordon’s, Lovat went to the University of Aberdeen to study chemistry. He was awarded a 1st Class Honours Degree in 1950 and was the Center Gold Medallist for the most distinguished graduate of his year. He also met his future wife, Eliz- abeth, as a fellow student of chemistry. The year 1950 also marked the beginning of his research into zeolite minerals, with a project entitled “Sorption of Gases in Crystals Modified by Occlusion by Polar Vapours.”

Lovat held his first academic post, Assista.nt Lecturer in Physical Chemistry, in the third year of his PhD studies. His supervisor was Professor Richard Barrer, and this alliance commenced an association that ended only with Professor Barrer’s recent death. The zeolite used in his work was a natural chabazite, and it was with great pleasure that he collected a sample on the BZA field trip to the Hebridean Island of Skye after the 1996 BZA meeting.

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Upon being awarded his PhD, Lovat left Aberdeen to work for the British government at the A.W.R.E. Alder- maston as a scientific officer, becoming the senior sci- entific officer in charge of the Nuclear Chemistry Group in 1955. During this time, he visited Maralinga in Australia, starting his great love of travel. Lovat car- ried out some zeolite ion exchange work while in this employment, and he was soon happy to rejoin Professor Barrer at Imperial College, London, in 1958 as a Lec- turer in Physical Chemistry. His career at Imperial ex- tended to retirement in 1993 and included promotions to Senior Lecturer (1970)) Reader (1976)) and Profes- sor (11986). The award of the degree of DSc came from the University of Aberdeen in 1976 for a thesis entitled “Adsorption, Diffusion, Ion Exchange, Mossbauer Spectroscopic and Szilard-Chalmers Recoil Studies.” His service to the chemistry department at Imperial inclucded many years as the departmental radiation su- pervisor.

After retirement, Lovat became Professor Emeritus and joined the chemistry department of the University of Edinburgh as an Honorary Fellow. He became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1996.

Lovat’s time at Imperial College marked the founda-

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Tribute: A. Dyer

tion of most of the modern advances in zeolite science, and, following his early collaboration with Richard Bar- rer, Lovat Rees established his international reputation in zeolite research. His major contributions came in such aspects as ion exchange equilibria and kinetics, molecular diffusion, and sorption. In these areas, he has authored many papers concerned with the funda- mentals of these phenomena. His papers on the kinet- ics of cation exchange in zeolites form part of the very few appearing in the last thirty years that progressed this complex subject. Work on the calorimetric deter- mination of heats of cation exchange was another land- mark, as was the more recent critical analyses of ex- changes in high silica zeolites. In the field of gas sorption, his work on self-diffusion of sorbates and the kinetics of their exchange has always been from a rig- orous physico-chemical approach, yielding results of great significance to the industrial use of zeolites as catalysts and molecular sieves. Most of his more recent research has been in pioneering the technique of fre- quency response to study gas sorption, and this work is now providing access to mechanisms of zeolite catalysis and gas sorption. The research is also linked to model- ing studies, another of his interests.

Earlier work made good use of radio-isotopes to follow cation and gas movements in zeolites, and this experience promoted the unique studies that Lovat supervised that used Szilard-Chalmers recoil reactions to interpret cation positions in the common synthetic zeolites. He also was an early user of the Mossbauer technique to gain knowledge of zeolites containing iron species, and he served as Chairman of the Royal Society of Chemistry Mossbauer Group. The Mid- dlesex and Chilterns Division of the Royal Society of Chemistry also benefited from his service as a com- mittee member for twelve years (Chairman, 1990- 1991).

The contribution that Lovat Rees has made to zeolite science is by no means confined to his outstanding research. He was the first Chairman of the British Ze- olite Association and continues to serve on its Commit- tee some twenty years later. This group was the first of

the national zeolite associations to be formed. He also has given loyal service to the Council of the Interna- tional Zeolite Association.

Thisjournal came into being through his sole efforts, and he has served for seventeen years as edit.or. The success of Zeolites, commercially and scientifically, comes from his diligence, enthusiasm, and scientific integrity. He also was instrumental in starting the Chemical Abstracts scan of zeolite literature, and he edited the Proceedings of the 5th IZA Naples Confer- ence.

Lovat’s contributions as a Plenary speaker have been valued at conferences all over the world, and he has the respect and personal friendship of the international zeolite community. This regard has been cemented, not the least, by the Chislehurst Confc:rences, con- ceived and organized by Lovat with the help of Eliza- beth. Based in pleasant surroundings, marked by out- standing food and wine, and capped by the most recent developments in research, discussed deeply but in lei- sured manner, these occasions provide lifetime memo- ries for all those fortunate enough to attend. There are many of us in receipt of memorable hospitality from Lovat and Elizabeth in their own home, which always has an open door to their many friends from the zeolite community.

During his academic life, Lovat has been associated with over 100 research collaborators, all of whom attest to his excellence as a scientist but, also, to his personal interest in them and their careers. Lovat Rees is a man of interests reaching beyond zeolites. He is an Interna- tional Rifle Shot (for Scotland, of course), has cap- tained his club to success in many national competi- tions, played good club cricket, and is a 1.0~ handicap golfer. The fact that he is now resident in Edinburgh, the home of the Festival, is no coincidence. The good wishes to him on his birthday come with the hope that he, and Elizabeth, will continue to enjoy good health and that Lovat will advance the cause of zeolite research for many years to come.

Alan L$w

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