James Alexander Morrison

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(1918 - 1987)
http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/-?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=125888&silo_library=GEN01
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JAMES ALEXANDER MORRISON James Alexander Morrison was born in Medicine Hat, Alberta, June l l, 1918, the son of Scottish immigrants. He received his early education in Alberta (B.Sc. in 1940 and M.Sc. in 1941, both from the University of Alberta), and then moved to McGill where he received his Ph.D. in physical chemistry with Bob McIntosh in 1943. After graduation, Jim worked as a chemist with the Department of National Defence, studying the properties of physisorbed gases. Following the war, he spent a postdoctoral year with Jack Aston at Pennsylvania State College, learning calorimetric techniques.
In 1946 E. W. R. Steacie invited him to join the staff of the National Research Council, and it was there that Jim first established a group to undertake studies in experimental thermodynamics. He remained at NRC for more than twenty years doing research mainly in solid state science, including his low-temperature experiments on condensed rare gases and other simple solids, and investigations of transport in ionic and molecular crystals. The work on solids carried out in the late 1950's has proved to be of lasting value, especially the interpretation of thermal data in terms of the moments of the phonon density of states, and the measurement of the low-frequency modes in glasses. At NRC Jim succeeded W. G. Schneider as Director of the Division of Pure Chemistry in 1966.
In 1969, Jim joined McMaster University as a Professor of Chemistry and the first Director of McMaster's Institute for Materials Research. Just before he left NRC, Jim had embarked on his now famous studies of solid methane, and these were continued at McMaster. Here again, Jim initiated a new area of research, concerned with molecular spin species conversion, which he probed via thermal and neutron measurements. Subsequently, he returned to the study of physisorption, particularly the behaviour of multilayers of simple molecules on graphite, and the wetting transition. He "retired'" from McMaster in 1986, but remained an unusually active Emeritus Professor.
Jim always had a talent for performing straightforward, timely, and well-defined experiments on well-characterized systems. This simple statement obscures the fact that in this way he often contributed to the start of a whole new field of research. His active, creative and imaginative career in scientific research led to many awards, including election to the Royal Society of Canada (1955), election as a Fellow of the Chemical Institute of Canada (1955), the award of the Chemical Institute of Canada Medal (1968), the CIC Montreal Medal (1985), the Spiers Medal of the Faraday (Chemical-Physics) Division of the Royal Society of Chemistry (1985), the Huffman Medal of the Calorimetry Conference (1987), and an Honorary Doctorate of Science from McMaster University in its centenary year (1987). Jim won a number of other, less well known "awards" — he was the first winner of the NRC/IUPAC Standard Gallstone Award (1970), the 1973 recipient of McMaster University's Peacock "Award'", and other irreverent kudos — all reflections of his own legendary sense of humour. His literary contributions alone should ensure lasting fame: He was, of course, the editor and a contributorto volume one of"Applied Poetry". As befits a Scot, he greatly advanced the cause of the Society for the Preservation of the Malt.
In addition to his outstanding research accomplishments, Jim contributed to many other aspects of science: He was Editor of this Journal (1963-1969) and Editor-in-Chief of the Canadian Journals of Research (1965-1969). He chaired a task force which reviewed the role of the Canadian Journals of Research, and the resulting report helped to solidify their independence and to sustain their commitment to quality. Jim was elected President ofthe Chemical Institute of Canada (1976-1977). He acted as a consultant to the NSF Materials Science Program, and to the General Telephone Research Laboratories. He served on grant review committees for NRC and later NSERC, and was always an articulate advocate of excellence in research, emphasizing the importance of originality and the value of free inquiry.
It is easy to overlook one of the most important aspects of his career, his role as teacher and mentor. Jim introduced hundreds of students to the arcane delights of thermodynamics and served as supervisor to many graduate students and postdoctoral fellows. However, his influence went far beyond this. He himself benefitted from E. W. R. Steacie's policy of hiring and supporting able, productive young researchers, and in his time Jim followed a similar policy. He was among those who established the E. W. R. Steacie Memorial Fund; as Chairman of its Board of Trustees, he played a major part in making the Steacie Prize unequivocally the most prestigious award for young scientists in Canada. He acted as a role model for people who knew him, including many whose contact with him was tangential. Jim led by example, and was usually to be found in shirt sleeves in his laboratory or modest office from early morning to late evening, Monday to Saturday. In his science he was a citizen of no country; he stimulated and interacted with scientists everywhere, and he encouraged Canadians, and others, to judge their work in the broader context. The freshness and vitality he brought to any discussion showed his breadth and intellectual vigour, and these characteristics sustained him in his final illness. Jim Morrison died October 20, 1987.
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