Abstract
THE Council of the Institution of Petroleum Technologists has awarded the Redwood Medal of the Institution to Dr. A. E. Dunstan in recognition of his distinguished services to the science and technology of petroleum. The medal was presented on April 12. Dr. A. E. Dunstan was born at Sheffield in 1878. In 1899 he entered the Royal College of Science, South Kensington. Later on he studied at University College, London, under Ramsay and at East London College under Hewitt. At University College, Dr. Dunstan collaborated with Trouton on investigations into the correlation of physical properties and chemical constitution. He had already published work on viscosity-concentration curves of mixtures. This work was continued at University College and elsewhere, and formed the subject of his thesis in 1910 for the degree of D.Sc. In the meantime, he had communicated numerous papers to the Chemical Society on the problems of viscosity in collaboration with Thole, Wilson, Hunt, Stubbs and others. From 1905 until 1915 Dr. Dunstan was head of the Chemical Department, East Ham Technical College. In 1915 he joined the Anglo-Persian Oil Company. From that time dates the important series of researches on the chemistry and refining of petroleum with which Dr. Dunstan's name is par-ticularly associated. The first important paper relating specifically to the petroleum industry was presented to the Institution in 1916 by Dunstan, Lomax and Thole, and dealt with the pyrogenesis of hydrocarbons. It described the evolution of the process of cracking and of the principles underlying it. A period of intensive research followed on the chemistry of refining processes, during which experimental work was carried out at Abadan and Sunbury. Dr. Dunstan is chief chemist of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company and a director of National Oil Refineries, Ltd. He was president of the Institution of Petroleum Technologists in 1929–31 and has been honorary editor of the Institution's publications since 1920.
Article PDF
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Dr. A. E. Dunstan. Nature 141, 721 (1938). https://doi.org/10.1038/141721b0
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/141721b0