Derek Birchall - Keele University

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Derek Birchall and the Birchall Centre

Derek Birchall The Birchall Centre started its life in 1992 as the Unit for Inorganic Chemistry and Materials Science. It was the idea of the late Professor JD Birchall FRS OBE who along with Dr C Exley and Professor K Kendall FRS came to Keele University following the re-organisation of what was then, the United Kingdom’s largest chemical company, Imperial Chemical Industries, ICI.

The philosophy behind setting up the Birchall Centre was simple and has not really changed to this day. It was to provide an academic environment in which fundamental and applied sciences across a breadth of fields would both prosper and inform one another. The aim is to understand a problem at the fundamental level and to look to apply the knowledge gained within every day life. The Unit started off with three general themes; Aluminium and Silicon in Biology; Cement Chemistry; and Fuel Cells; and these simply reflected the research interests of its founders, Chris Exley, Kevin Kendall and Derek Birchall. The Unit soon became a ‘Centre’ before the untimely death of Derek Birchall in late 1995. The Centre was re-named in his honour and continues to this day to foster his philosophy of fundamental science informing every day life.

The Birchall Centre today embraces a wide diversity of research interests and though the general themes of sustainable energy and materials science prevail to some extent, all areas of science which fit well with the aforementioned philosophy are always welcome.