Kenneth Richard Seddon (1950–2018) was a chemist specialising in

ionic liquids An ionic liquid (IL) is a salt in the liquid state. In some contexts, the term has been restricted to salts whose melting point is below a specific temperature, such as . While ordinary liquids such as water and gasoline are predominantly made of ...

Biography

Seddon was born in

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

in 1950. He studied chemistry at

Liverpool University , mottoeng = These days of peace foster learning , established = 1881 – University College Liverpool1884 – affiliated to the federal Victoria Universityhttp://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukla/2004/4 University of Manchester Act 200 ...

, completing his PhD in 1973, then took up a research fellowship at the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

. In 1982 he moved to the School of Chemistry and Molecular Sciences (MOLS) at the

University of Sussex , mottoeng = Be Still and Know , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £14.4 million (2020) , budget = £319.6 million (2019–20) , chancellor = Sanjeev Bhaskar , vice_chancellor = Sasha Roseneil , ...

. He left Sussex in 1993 to become chair and Director of the

Queen's University Belfast , mottoeng = For so much, what shall we give back? , top_free_label = , top_free = , top_free_label1 = , top_free1 = , top_free_label2 = , top_free2 = , established = , closed = , type = Public research university , parent = ...

, where he founded the Queen's University Ionic Liquid Laboratories (QUILL) Research Centre. He was also Professor Catedrático Visitante at the Instituto de Tecnologia Química e Biológica (ITQB), New University of Lisbon, Portugal, and Visiting Professor at the Chinese Academy of Sciences. He also served as Associate Editor of the Australian Journal of Chemistry. He was awarded the OBE in 2015. His students include
Alaa Abdul-SadaJohn Spencer
and Thomas Welton.

References

Obituaries

Obituary in The Telegraph, 31 January 2018

Kenneth R. Seddon on Superstars of Science. Retrieved 10 February 2018

Obituary on the University of Sussex website. Retrieved 10 February 2018

{{DEFAULTSORT:Seddon, Ken 1950 births 2018 deaths English chemists Academics of Queen's University Belfast Officers of the Order of the British Empire Scientists from Liverpool