Jack Lewis, Baron Lewis of Newnham

Who is Jack Lewis, Baron Lewis of Newnham?

Jack Lewis, Baron Lewis of Newnham, FRS is an English chemist working mainly in the area of the transition elements.

Educated at Barrow Grammar School, he graduated in 1949 with a bachelor's degree in chemistry from the University of London, after which he moved to the University of Nottingham where he obtained his Ph.D. In 1953 he was appointed lecturer at the University of Sheffield before returning to London in 1956 as a lecturer at Imperial College London. He was Professor of Chemistry at the University of Manchester from 1961 to 1967, University College London from 1967 to 1970, and the University of Cambridge from 1970 to 1995. He was also the first Warden of Robinson College, the newest of the Cambridge colleges, from its foundation until 2001.

He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in Mar 1973 and was awarded their Davy Medal in 1985, and their Royal Medal in 2004.

He was knighted in 1982 and created Baron Lewis of Newnham of Newnham in the County of Cambridgeshire on 8 February 1989. He is a member of the House of Lords, where he sits as a cross bencher and is a member of a number of Select Committees on Science and Technology. He is also a member of the Advisory Council for the Campaign for Science and Engineering. In 1995, he was awarded an Honorary Degree by the University of Bath.