John Stuart Anderson

Who was John Stuart Anderson?

John Stuart Anderson FRS, FAA, was a British and Australian scientist who was Professor of Chemistry at the University of Melbourne and Professor of Inorganic Chemistry at the University of Oxford.

He was born in Islington, London, the son of a Scottish cabinet-maker, and attended school in the area but learned most of his chemistry at the Islington Public Library. His tertiary education was at the Northern Polytechnic Institute, Imperial College and the Royal College of Science, all in London.

Anderson's most important research work was:

⁕on the application of Raman spectroscopy to valence problems

⁕accounting for the composition ranges of non-stoichiometric compounds by combining the ideas of Schottky and Wagner with those of Fowler and Lacher

⁕his use of field-emission and field ion microscopy to study surface reactions at the atomic level

⁕his use of the electron microscope to solve problems of reaction mechanisms in solid state chemistry

⁕on the conditions of equilibrium of 'non-stoichiometric' chemical compounds.

In addition he carried out practical investigations on the composition of minerals mined in Australia. He developed a love of the Australian bush and, with his family, a lifelong attachment to the country.