Professor William Charles Price FRS (1 April 1909 – 10 March 1993) was a British physicist (spectroscopy). Brought up in Swansea, he spent his career at the universities of Cambridge and London. His work was important for identifying the

hydrogen bond In chemistry, a hydrogen bond (or H-bond) is a primarily electrostatic force of attraction between a hydrogen (H) atom which is covalently bound to a more electronegative "donor" atom or group (Dn), and another electronegative atom bearing a ...

structure of DNA

base pair A base pair (bp) is a fundamental unit of double-stranded nucleic acids consisting of two nucleobases bound to each other by hydrogen bonds. They form the building blocks of the DNA double helix and contribute to the folded structure of both DNA ...

Early life and studies

William Charles Price was born on 1 April 1909. He went to the Bishop Gore School in Swansea, where his contemporaries included the young poet

Dylan Thomas Dylan Marlais Thomas (27 October 1914 – 9 November 1953) was a Welsh poet and writer whose works include the poems "Do not go gentle into that good night" and "And death shall have no dominion", as well as the "play for voices" ''Under ...

, whose father taught English at the school. He failed to get a state scholarship to Oxford in 1927. He gained a

BSc A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University of ...

in Physics from Swansea University in 1930. Price then spent three years as a Fellow at

Johns Hopkins University Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hem ...

Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

, Maryland, USA. He was appointed to the University of Cambridge on a

1851 Research Fellowship The 1851 Research Fellowship is a scheme conducted by the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851 to annually award a three-year research scholarship to approximately eight "young scientists or engineers of exceptional promise". The fellowship ...

in 1935, at the university's Physical Chemical Laboratory - working with

Martin Lowry Thomas Martin Lowry (; 26 October 1874 – 2 November 1936) was an English physical chemist who developed the Brønsted–Lowry acid–base theory simultaneously with and independently of Johannes Nicolaus Brønsted and was a founder-member an ...

until 1936, then with Ronald George Wreyford Norrish. In 1937 he became university demonstrator; and from 1938 a Prize Fellow of

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by Henry VIII, King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any college at either Cambridge ...

. At Cambridge he worked with John Lennard-Jones and Sydney Chapman. In 1938 he was awarded the Royal Institute of Chemistry's Meldola Medal and Prize.

Career

He worked at the

Royal Aircraft Establishment The Royal Aircraft Establishment (RAE) was a British research establishment, known by several different names during its history, that eventually came under the aegis of the Ministry of Defence (United Kingdom), UK Ministry of Defence (MoD), bef ...

in the field of ultra-violet absorption spectroscopy, working with Fred Dainton. He set up a spectroscopic group at

Imperial Chemical Industries Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) was a British chemical company. It was, for much of its history, the largest manufacturer in Britain. It was formed by the merger of four leading British chemical companies in 1926. Its headquarters were at M ...

(ICI) at

Billingham Manufacturing Plant The Billingham Manufacturing Plant is a large chemical works based in the Borough of Stockton-on-Tees, England. In agricultural terms, it is one of the most important factories in Britain. History Brunner Mond Ammonia had first been made in G ...

in 1943.

King's College London

From 1948 to 1976 he worked at the Wheatstone Physics Laboratory at

King's College London King's College London (informally King's or KCL) is a public research university located in London, England. King's was established by royal charter in 1829 under the patronage of King George IV and the Duke of Wellington. In 1836, King's ...

. During this period he became a Fellow of the Royal Society (1959),

Wheatstone Professor of Physics Wheatstone may refer to: * Cape Wheatstone, in Antarctica * Charles Wheatstone (1802–1875), a British scientist and inventor, eponymous for Wheatstone bridge * Cooke and Wheatstone Telegraph * Wheatstone, New Zealand, a locality in the Canterbu ...

(1962) and Dean of the Faculty of Science (1966 to 1968). At King's College London he was a pioneer of identifying Rydberg series ultra-violet absorption spectra. He was encouraged by his head of department (the Wheatstone Professor) to look at many substances with spectroscopic techniques, and at the time there was much interest in the structure and function of DNA and proteins. It was through his work with infra-red absorption spectroscopy that the alignment of the hydrogen bonds of the DNA base pairs, relative to the DNA fibre axis, was found.

Personal life

In August 1939 Price married Nest Davies, (whose father had been a science teacher). They had a son and daughter. Price died on 10 March 1993, aged 83.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Price, Bill 1909 births 1993 deaths Academics of King's College London Alumni of Swansea University Fellows of the Royal Society Fellows of Trinity College, Cambridge People educated at Bishop Gore School People from Swansea Spectroscopists Welsh physicists

Early life and studies

Career

King's College London

Personal life

See also

References