John Coulson

John Metcalfe Coulson (13 December 1910 – 6 January 1990) was a British chemical engineering academic known for co-writing a 1954 textbook on chemical engineering with Jack Richardson; the book became an established series of texts now known as Coulson & Richardson's Chemical Engineering.

Biography John Coulson was born on 13 December 1909 in Dudley, Worcestershire, the twin brother of chemist and mathematician Charles Alfred Coulson. Their father was Alfred Coulson (who became Principal of Dudley Technical College) and their mother was Annie Sincere Hancock, a school headmistress. The brothers were raised Methodist. They lived in Dudley until 1919, when they moved to Bristol. He did his first degree at Christ's College, Cambridge, then a postgraduate course in Chemical Engineering at Imperial College followed by research, achieving a PhD in 1935. He joined the academic staff, but soon in 1939 was required to leave his position and manage the Royal Ordnance Factories due to the outbreak of the Second World War. The John Coulson building at Heriot-Watt University is named for him.

Coulson died on 6 January 1990. He was 79.