About Professor Richardson

About Professor Richardson Professor John Francis Richardson, Jack to all who knew him, was born at Palmers Green, North London, on 29 July 1920 and attended the Dame Alice Owen’s School in Islington. Subsequently, after studying chemical engineering at Imperial College, he embarked on research into the suppression of burning liquids and of fires. This early work contributed much to our understanding of the extinguishing properties of foams, carbon dioxide, and halogenated hydrocarbons, and he spent much time during the war years on large-scale fire control experiments in Manchester and at the Llandarcy refinery in South Wales. At the end of the war, Jack returned to Imperial College as a lecturer where he focussed on research in the broad area of multiphase fluid mechanics, especially sedimentation and fluidisation, two-phase flow of a gas and a liquid in pipes. This laid the foundation for the design of industrial processes like catalytic crackers and led to a long-lasting collaboration with the Nuclear Research Laboratories at Harwell. This work also led to the publication of the famous paper, now common knowledge, the so-called Richardson-Zaki equation, which was selected as the Week’s citation classic (Current Contents, 12 February 1979)! After a brief spell with Boake Roberts in East London, where he worked on the development of novel processes for flavours and fragrances, he was appointed the professor of chemical engineering at the then University College of Swansea (now University of Swansea) in 1960. He remained there until his retirement in 1987 and thereafter continued as an emeritus professor until his death on 4 January 2011. Throughout his career, his major thrust was on the wellbeing of the discipline of chemical engineering. In the early years of his teaching duties at Imperial College, he and his colleague John Coulson recognised the lack of satisfactory textbooks available in the field of chemical engineering. They set about rectifying the situation, and this is how the now well-known Coulson-Richardson series of books on chemical engineering was born. The fact that this series of books (six volumes) is as relevant today as it was at the time of their first appearance is a testimony to the foresight of John Coulson and Jack Richardson. Throughout his entire career spanning almost 40 years, Jack contributed significantly to all facets of professional life, teaching, research in multiphase fluid mechanics, and service to the Institution of Chemical Engineers (IChemE, the United Kingdom). His professional work and

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About Professor Richardson

long-standing public service was well recognised. Jack was the president of IChemE during the period 1975–76; he was named a fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering in 1978 and was awarded an OBE in 1981. In his spare time, Jack and his wife Joan were keen dancers, having been founder members of the Society of International Folk Dancing, and they also shared a love of hill walking. Raj Chhabra