Brian Halton

Brian Halton (9 March 1941 – 23 February 2019) was a New Zealand organic chemist. He is noted for his investigation of highly strained and fused aromatic compounds, and was also active as an historian of chemistry.

Early life, family and education Born in Accrington, Lancashire, England, on 9 March 1941, Halton was the only child of John Henry Halton and Mary (May) Halton (née Robinson). He contracted bovine tuberculosis as a young child and consequently missed two years of his early education. Later he attended St Joseph's College, Blackpool, and St Joseph's Academy, Blackheath.

Academic and research career After two years of post-doctoral research with Merle Battiste at the University of Florida, where he worked on small ring chemistry, Halton was appointed as a faculty member in the Department of Chemistry at Victoria University of Wellington in 1968, eventually rising to become a full professor.

Halton was active in the New Zealand Institute of Chemistry (NZIC), serving as chair of the Wellington branch, editor of Chemistry in New Zealand between 2002 and 2012, and president of the NZIC from 1986 to 1987. and a collection of short biographies of notable chemists from Lancashire, published in 2015 as A legacy of Lancashire: its chemists, biochemists and industrialists.

Honours and awards The New Zealand Association of Scientists awarded Halton its Research Medal in 1974, and the Shorland Medal in 2001. In 1980, he received the ICI Medal for excellence in chemical research from the NZIC. In 2005, he was awarded an honorary fellowship of the NZIC.