Professor Edward Abel, FRSC, CBE (1931–2021)

Eddie (Ed) Abel, past president of the Royal Society of Chemistry, died on 19 April 2021 at 89. Former co-workers and colleagues were keen to mark his legacy and have compiled this special issue of Dalton Transactions, with an overview of his career, some personal recollections from two of his PhD students, and a collection of papers either published by him or with some connection to his scientific career.

He was an organometallic chemist, who served as the Royal Society of Chemistry president between 1996 and 1998, and played an influential role in UK higher education policy and research funding. He was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1997.

Ed grew up in South Wales and after graduating he served with the British Army during the Korean War. When the war ended, Ed knew he wanted to pursue chemistry and teaching, and found himself in Darlington Public Library reading chemistry journals. He was in touch with inorganic chemist Mike Lappert during this time and learned that there was an opening as a demonstrator at the Northern Polytechnic Institute in London, now part of the London Metropolitan University, which he secured. Lappert quickly got Ed hooked on organometallic chemistry, and under his guidance he finished his PhD in two years.

Geoffrey Wilkinson, who shared the 1973 chemistry Nobel prize for pioneering work in organometallic chemistry, was also a major influence in Ed's life. Ed had the organometallic chemistry expertise that Wilkinson was seeking, and in 1956 he became the first postdoctoral fellow to work in Wilkinson's lab at Imperial College. While there, Ed was involved in an incident in the 1950s that caused a significant fire that also blew out the door and some of the windows in Wilkinson's adjacent office. There were ‘huge clouds of grey–green smoke’, according to Bill Griffith, who joined the group as a PhD student in 1957.

‘Abel was making trimethylsilylchromate for the first time; his reaction vessel exploded and some solvent bottles caught fire’, Griffith recalls. After returning from hospital, Abel was told by the department's head that ‘on no account was the synthesis to be attempted again in any of the chemistry laboratories’, he adds. Undeterred, Griffith says Abel came in very early on a Saturday morning and prepared the compound, which was needed for final analyses, on the fire escape outside the lab, ‘wearing three lab coats and a big towel around his head for protection’.

In 1972, Ed became an inorganic chemistry professor at the University of Exeter, and he headed its chemistry department from 1977 to 1988. He also took on roles in higher education policy at the national level. First, he was appointed to the Exeter Grants Committee's physical science subcommittee that oversaw teaching and research in chemistry, physics and Earth science, and then took a seat on the full University Grants Committee. During the 1970s and 1980s, Ed also spent a good deal of time on the Royal Society of Chemistry local section circuit, delivering lectures at schools.

Helen Pain, Chief Executive of the Royal Society of Chemistry, said: ‘I owe so much to Ed, from my time working as part of his research group in Exeter and throughout my career at the Royal Society of Chemistry. He led by example – kind, generous and supportive – inspiring a passion for the subject and the profession of chemistry’.

Tom Welton, Royal Society of Chemistry Past President and a professor of chemistry at Imperial College, paid tribute to Ed saying that he touched many people's lives. ‘Of course I learned a lot of chemistry from him, but he also taught me so much about how to treat others’, he added. ‘He was always on hand to give help when any of us needed it. There are many people, including myself, who would not be where we are now without him. I will always be grateful’.

(Excerpts taken from Chemistry World, 26 April 2021)

(Personal thoughts: Distinguished Professor Suresh Bhargava, RMIT University, Australia)

Coming through many challenges in my life, I never dreamt that I would be pursue a PhD in the UK. But as fate would have it, I landed in London in September 1979 as a commonwealth academic staff scholar to initiate my PhD with Prof. Edward William Abel at Exeter University. Little did I know that this day was going to be a tipping point in my life and that my life was going to take a dramatic turn. To my surprise, when I reached Exeter station, I found that Eddie had personally come to the station to welcome me to the university. He dropped me off at my room at the university hostel but left me contemplating the kind personality of the man who was going to be my mentor.

The PhD life caught on fast, and I started learning from him slowly but surely. I used to spend maximum time in the lab, usually late into the night. Eddie got used to seeing me on his way back home around 10 pm. I always liked chemistry, but at Exeter University it became my passion. We often used to joke around in the lab that Eddie was sick with chemistry, and he passed on the infection to us: the power to design and synthesize the very molecules which form everything in our world from bread to buildings is indeed very addictive.

Eddie was an excellent teacher and found innovative ways to teach us stereochemistry and symmetry in molecules. At the time he was a leading expert in sulfur and selenium chemistry which was smelly but produced fascinating results. My first success came after a year of research with him, and we wrote my first paper for Inorganica Chimica Acta at his residence on a Sunday. After that first article, I paced ahead and rapidly added to his S and Se chemistry, investigating structure inversion in molecules using dynamic nuclear magnetic resonance studies, and lowering of inversion barriers due to C=C double bonds or sp² hybridisation in molecules.

During my early days of learning, I was operating a dry solvent distillation system one lunch time – wrongly of course – because it soon caught fire. Eddie, who was the head of the department at that time, rushed to the lab after hearing the ruckus. Without getting upset about the incident, the first thing he did was to inquire about my well-being, and he personally checked my hands for any injuries and burns. Then without any further conversation with me, he instructed the technician to repair the damage to the equipment. The whole ordeal left me a little confused and pleasantly surprised. Again, to my surprise, the next day Eddie called me and asked me to run the distillation system but this time in front of him. He did not let me go until he was convinced that I had got it completely; such rigour and dedication from my mentor that I have never seen in anybody else in my lifetime. Eddie cared for his students and taught them to learn from their mistakes. This philosophy and mentorship left a lasting impression on me, and I have taught the same philosophy to my students throughout my academic career.

My PhD research time went by fast, and I finished my PhD in 2.5 years with 15 publications, mostly in Royal Society of Chemistry journals. After my PhD, I returned to India but found that the standard and quality of facilities was seriously lacking compared to the UK. Once Eddie came to know that I was unable to continue my research in Indian research institutions, he personally wrote to Martin Bennett at the Australian National University, who soon offered me a position as a research fellow. That brought me to Australia, and I began the Australian chapter of my life in 1983.

Another incident which I can never forget is the appointment of my PhD thesis examiner, which was a cause of great stress and anxiety to me. My colleagues often used to tease me that Nobel Laureate Sir Geoffrey Wilkinson would be my thesis examiner which was a frightening thought for most students because Geoffrey was well known to be a tough examiner and had previously recommended many PhD theses for masters instead. So, I was immensely shocked and terrified when I heard from Eddie's secretary, Silvia, that Geoffrey had agreed to be my thesis and viva examiner. When I asked Eddie why he sent my thesis to Geoffrey for examination, he took me out for a coffee and told me that he did it because he was absolutely confident about the quality of my thesis and research work and that my thesis would pass with flying colours. My thesis examination went through smoothly, but my viva went on for about 3.5 hours. Looking back, I find that all the anxiety surrounding the thesis examination was just an over-reaction and today I proudly bear the autograph of Sir Geoffrey Wilkinson on my PhD thesis. After successfully defending my thesis, I went to the lab all excited and happy the next day only to find that Eddie had collapsed and had been rushed to the ICU of the Exeter hospital. For a long time, people in the lab blamed me for his hospitalization, but I knew that Eddie had some health issues, and his illness might have flared up due to work stresses. Eddie recovered quickly and was back in the lab in no time.

These are some golden pages of my professional life, which cemented my destiny and perhaps made me what I am today. Eddie was a gift from God to me, who changed a poor boy's life. He not only taught me to be a good human being but also to be a good teacher and a passionate driver of science. My luck was furthered because Eddie sent me to Martin Bennett who became my next mentor in life. Martin and I expanded the legacy of Eddie even further, and I continue to explore some of his ideas even today in my current organometallic research. I am sure my colleagues in Eddie's lab – like Bruce Williams, Thomas Mackenzie, Maqbool Bhatti, Gary king, Pramod Mittal, Mohammed ZA Chowdhury and Abdul Rauf Khan – equally cherish Eddie and the role of his teaching methods in their professional success in life. I can never forget Eddie and he will always have a special place in my heart. Unfortunately he is gone from this world, but his legacy, his rigour, values and teachings are forever engraved in our souls. He is the one who taught me ‘leave this world a better place than when you entered in it’ and that you can contribute the very best to academic platforms. Even today, I walk the very path that was laid in front of me by Eddie and I am proud to say that I will continue to do so as long as I remain in this world.

(Personal thoughts: Professor Nicholas Long FRSC, Sir Edward Frankland BP Professor of Inorganic Chemistry, Imperial College London)

Ed was a wonderful man in so many ways, and the phrase ‘a gentleman and a scholar’ could have been invented for him. Sadly, another of the modern giants of organometallic chemistry has passed on, but Ed leaves behind a great legacy that has made a difference to so many lives.

I was lucky enough to be supervised by him for my PhD in the late 1980s. There are so many memories to recall, beginning from day 1 of my PhD when Ed took the day off to be my chauffeur and ferry me around prospective rental flats, leaving me with a clutch of papers on fluxional organometallics for some ‘light reading’, to finishing with my last visit to see him in early 2020 when we discussed the old times and I brought him up to date with the latest academic gossip – Ed loved a gossip.

Ed always had time for you. During my PhD, he was heading towards high profile and influential UK chemistry and Exeter University administration, but he always made time for his students and had very much an open-door policy. He had a wonderfully light touch in terms of supervision, allowing us to find our own way, with a gentle nudge in the right direction when we needed it. Ed instilled a passion and enthusiasm for chemistry, and this all came with a fatherly care and support, and importantly humour. In this regard, he was very much a double act with his beloved wife Margaret, whose death in 2018 really shook Ed. Ed and Margaret were superb and congenial hosts and I recall many meals at their house and garden, alongside the infamous Christmas parties held in the lab (don't tell Health and Safety) where mince pies were warmed in the lab oven and mulled wine on hotplates, and often involved some kind of comedy sketch or panto.

Ed was a great man in so many ways – being a very proud and loving family man, and a mentor, leader and supporter to many others. We miss him dearly but his legacy lives on.

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