Christopher Ingold
Ingold, Christopher (1893-1970) was a British chemist. He made fundamental contributions to the field of organic chemistry, the study of compounds that contain carbon atoms.
Christopher Kelk Ingold was born on Oct. 28, 1893, in Forest Gate, a suburb of London, England. He attended the University of London, from which he received a bachelor of science degree in 1913 and a doctor of science degree in 1921. From 1918 to 1920, he also worked as a research chemist at the Cassel Cyanide Company in Glasgow, Scotland. From 1920 to 1924, he was a lecturer at the University of London's Imperial College.
In 1923, Ingold married Edith Hilda Usherwood, a chemist. The couple had three children. Often in collaboration with his wife, Ingold investigated the electric charges present in organic compounds and developed theories on the part these charges play in chemical reactions.
From 1924 to 1930, Ingold was professor of organic chemistry at the University of Leeds in England. In 1930, Ingold became a professor of chemistry at the University of London's University College, becoming the director of the chemistry laboratories in 1937. He officially retired in 1961 but was named professor emeritus and remained active in the chemistry department. He wrote the book Structure and Mechanism in Organic Chemistry, published in 1953. Ingold and the Welsh chemist Edward David Hughes carried out detailed studies of elimination reactions, in which molecules lose a portion of their structure, and substitution reactions, in which one subunit of a molecule is replaced by a different one.
Ingold received many honors throughout his career. In 1924, Ingold was elected a fellow (member) of the Royal Society. He was knighted in 1958. Ingold died on Dec. 8, 1970, in London.