Secretariat

Durward Cruickshank, FRS

We are very sorry to have to report the death, on 13 July 2007, of Professor Durward Cruickshank, FRS.

Professor Cruickshank was one of the foremost crystallographers of his generation. He came to Leeds in 1946 to join Professor E G Cox's chemical crystallography group as a research assistant. He took time out to read for the Mathematical Tripos at Cambridge, graduating with a First in 1949; this complemented the First awarded to him some years previously in his external London BSc degree in Engineering. Appointed Lecturer in Mathematical Chemistry at Leeds in 1949, he was promoted to Reader in 1957. Professor Cruickshank published extensively in Acta Crystallographica from 1948 onwards on topics in crystal structure refinement, rapidly establishing a reputation as one of the most stimulating and productive scholars working on the theory of X-ray analysis. He resigned from his post at Leeds in 1962, on his appointment as Joseph Black Professor of Chemistry at the University of Glasgow. Later, he moved to UMIST. Professor Cruickshank was elected FRS in 1979. He also served as Treasurer of the International Union of Crystallography from 1966 to 1972, and as its General Secretary from 1970 to 1972. He was Vice-President of the British Crystallographic Association from 1983 to 1985. Whilst at Leeds, Professor Cruickshank was prominently involved in the acquisition and exploitation of the University's first computer. Only two weeks before his death, staff in the School of Computing had met him to record his reminiscences and recollections of those times.