John Henderson Knox

John Henderson Knox FRS (1927 – 15 October 2018) was a Professor of Physical Chemistry at the University of Edinburgh and is considered a distinguished contributor to the fields of reaction kinetics and chromatography.

Contributions to chemistry John Knox was an early leader in the field of gas chromatography. As a PhD student in at Pembroke College, Cambridge, in 1953 Knox, together with his fellow student Howard Purnell, constructed a self-designed gas chromatographer in their lab and used this to pioneer early research in the field. In later experiments Knox was the first to use gas chromatography to measure rate of reaction constants for gaseous chemical reactions. This work enabled greater understanding of mechanisms of combustion and chlorination reactions in science.

During a sabbatical with Prof JC Giddings in Utah in 1964, Knox was introduced to column liquid chromatography. Back home in 1969, he published a landmark paper with Mohammed Saleem, which suggested that the highest speed in liquid chromatography would be obtained by using 2 micron porous particles.

Knox's work over this period included development of the Knox Equation, now used commonly to describe the spreading of a solute into bands in liquid chromatography.

John Knox was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1971 and a Fellow of the Royal Society of London in 1984.

His work on anchor testing culminated in the design of his own optimised Knox Anchor, now commercially manufactured in the UK.

Personal life John Knox celebrated 60 years of marriage to his wife Josephine in March 2017.

He died on 15 October 2018 in Edinburgh, aged 90. He is survived by his wife, four sons, 12 grandchildren, and 4 great-grandchildren.