Ronald G.W. Norrish

Facts

Ronald George Wreyford Norrish

Photo from the Nobel Foundation archive.

Ronald George Wreyford Norrish
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1967

Born: 9 November 1897, Cambridge, United Kingdom

Died: 7 June 1978, Cambridge, United Kingdom

Affiliation at the time of the award: Institute of Physical Chemistry, Cambridge, United Kingdom

Prize motivation: “for their studies of extremely fast chemical reactions, effected by disturbing the equilibrium by means of very short pulses of energy”

Prize share: 1/4

Work

During chemical reactions, atoms and molecules regroup and form new constellations. Chemical reactions are affected by heat and light, among other things. The sequence of events can proceed very quickly. At the end of the 1940s, Ronald Norrish and George Porter built an extremely powerful lamp that emitted very short bursts of light. The light’s energy triggered reactions among the molecules or split them into parts that were inclined to react. By registering the light spectrums that are characteristic for different substances, the progress of the reaction could be monitored.

To cite this section
MLA style: Ronald G.W. Norrish – Facts. NobelPrize.org. Nobel Prize Outreach AB 2024. Tue. 5 Nov 2024. <https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/chemistry/1967/norrish/facts/>

Back to top Back To Top Takes users back to the top of the page

Nobel Prizes and laureates

Six prizes were awarded for achievements that have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind. The 12 laureates' work and discoveries range from proteins' structures and machine learning to fighting for a world free of nuclear weapons.

See them all presented here.

Illustration

Explore prizes and laureates

Look for popular awards and laureates in different fields, and discover the history of the Nobel Prize.