Sir Henry Enfield RoscoeBorn 7 Jan 1833; died 18 Dec 1915 at age 82. English chemist who founded the Manchester school of chemistry after he became chair of chemistry at Owens College (1857), four years after earning his Ph.D. He greatly improved science education there, implementing some teaching methods he learned while studying at Heidelberg under Wilhelm Bunsen. In his 30 years at Owens, he brought the college from the brink of extinction to an institution where original research by students and demonstrators produced 120 published papers. Roscoe joined in research with Bunsen, from 1855 to 1862, on the laws of photochemical action. In 1865, Roscoe learnt of the presence of vanadium in a Cheshire copper mine, and began his most important original research on the rare element, and prepared pure vanadium and its oxides. He was knighted for services to education (1884).« |
