M. B. Donald

Maxwell Bruce Donald (1897 - 6 January 1978) and a historian specialising in mining.

Early career Donald studied at the Royal College of Science and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In 1921 he became a Sir Alfred Yarrow Scholar, before becoming a physical chemistry demonstrator for the Royal College of Science. He left the Royal College in 1925 to become a chemical engineer for the Chilean Nitrate Producers Association, before joining Royal Dutch Shell in 1929 as an adviser on bitumen emulsions. During the 1930s, Donald worked with the professor of biochemistry, Sir Jack Drummond on the isolation of Vitamin A and B from fish liver oil and wheat germ.

During the Second World War, Donald was part of the Special Operations Executive Inter Services Research Bureau under Dudley Newitt. He also continued to lecture, joining Imperial College London after the bombing of the Ramsay Laboratory at UCL.

Later career During 1947 Donald became a reader in the department at University College London. At UCL, Donald worked with Eric Mitchell Crook on developing the discipline of biochemical engineering, including the production the first coenzyme A in Britain from yeast as part of a Medical Research Council project. With Ernest Baldwin, head of biochemistry, Donald set up a joint diploma in 1959, later a masters programme in biochemical engineering at UCL.

Donald retired in 1965 and was replaced as the Ramsay professor of Chemical Engineering by P. N. Rowe.

Historian Donald was a keen historian and published a number of works: History of the Chile nitrate industry (1936), Burchard Kranich (c. 1515–1578), miner and queens physician, Cornish mining stamps, antimony and, Frobishers gold (1950), Elizabethan Copper:The History of the Company of the Mines Royal 1568-1605 (1955) and Elizabethan Monopolies: The History of the Company of Mineral and Battery Works from 1565 to 1604 (1961). Donald was the historian of the Society of Mines Royal. His work on mining history was recognised by being elected a fellow of the Royal Historical Society.

Awards In 1937, Donald won the Institution of Chemical Engineers senior Moulton Medal. Donald was awarded the Osborne Reynolds medal in 1940, for his most meritorious long-term contribution to the progress of the Institution.

The Institution of Chemical Engineers named its award for to an individual for outstanding services in biochemical engineering. The Donald Medal has been awarded by the Biochemical Engineering Special Interest Group since 1989.