An Englishman, a Croatian and an Albanian walked into a Materials Chemistry conference… If that sounds like a joke, it’s rather appropriate. The former students, postdocs and collaborators who came from far and wide to mark Professor Bill Jones’s retirement celebrated a highly-regarded researcher – and also a mentor who inspired and challenged them and made them laugh.
In between the presentations, on topics from crystal engineering to sustainable concrete to mechanochemistry, speakers shared memories of working with Bill, who came to Cambridge in 1978 on a three-year research fellowship and has just retired 39 years later.
Dr Krešo Bučar came to work with Bill in 2011 as an International Research Fellow and is now a lecturer and Excellence Research Fellow at UCL, continuing the research path that he started here. He says: “I consider myself very lucky to have spent time in Bill’s group; he’s a clever, out-of-the-box-thinking kind of scientist whose accomplishments have a tremendous impact on materials research going on in both academic and industrial settings. Bill is also an outstanding mentor, kind, supportive and encouraging. I learned a lot from him. And I love his sense of humour!”
Former PhD student Chris Greenwell, now a Professor of Earth Sciences at Durham University, agreed. “Bill’s impish sense of humour has caught many people out. One year he told some of his PhD students, just before their viva, they would also be tested on all the postgraduate colloquia they’d attended during the year. This caused complete consternation. They didn’t realise Bill’s deadpan expression meant he was winding them up...”
Attendees at Bill’s conference ranged from Bill’s own former PhD supervisor, Professor Sir John Meurig Thomas, to his last ever PhD student, Gabi Schneider-Rauber. Guests celebrated Bill’s work and contributions to teaching and research – where he established himself initially in the areas of Mössbauer Spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy, clays and heterogeneous catalysis before working more recently in the area of pharmaceutical materials science.
He was described as an exemplary group leader and inspiring mentor. Dr Dritan Hasa, a recent postdoc of Bill’s who is now a Pharmaceutics Lecturer at De Montfort University, said: “I call Bill a ‘beautiful mind’. It is always a pleasure to have one-to-one meetings with him, it just opens your mind.”
Nilwala Kottegoda, Professor at the University of Sri Jayewardenepura and a Principal Scientist in the Sri Lanka Institute of Nanotechnology, says: “I gained many skills under Bill’s guidance and from him encouraging me to think differently. I was a more independent person after my PhD than I was when I arrived.”
Main image, Bill Jones at his retirement symposium in October 2017. In-text image, attendees at the event. Both photos courtesy of Department of Chemistry Photography.