Michael Hartshorn

Michael Hartshorn
Michael Hartshorn
Born	Michael Philip Hartshorn; 10 September 1936; Keresley, Warwickshire, England
Died	15 December 2017 (aged 81); Christchurch, New Zealand
Alma mater	University of Oxford
Spouse	Jacqueline Joll (m. 1963)
Awards	Hector Memorial Medal (1973)
	Scientific career
Fields	Organic chemistry
Institutions	University of Canterbury
Thesis	Steroid hormone analogues (1960)

Michael Philip Hartshorn (10 September 1936 – 15 December 2017) was a British-born New Zealand organic chemist. He was awarded the Hector Memorial Medal by the Royal Society of New Zealand in 1973.

Early life and education

Born in Keresley on the outskirts of Coventry, Warwickshire, England, on 10 September 1936,^[1] Hartshorn was the son of Bernard Hartshorn and Christine Evelyn Hartshorn (née Bennett). He studied at Imperial College London, from where he graduated BSc and ARCS, and at University College, Oxford, where he obtained a DPhil in 1960.^[2] His doctoral thesis was titled Steroid hormone analogues.^[3]

Hartshorn married Jacqueline Joll in 1963, and the couple went on to have four sons.^[4] He became a naturalised New Zealand citizen in 1965.^[1]

Academic and research career

Hartshorn was appointed as a lecturer in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch in 1960, and rose to become a professor in 1972. When he retired in 1996 he was made a professor emeritus.^[5]

Hartshorn's research centred on reaction mechanisms. He investigated the chemical rearrangement of steroids, cyclic sulfites, monoterpenes and acetylenic alcohols. His research included the ipso nitration of aromatic hydrocarbons and phenols, and their reactions with fuming nitric acid and nitrogen dioxide, as well as the chlorination of polysubstituted phenols. He also studied the reactions of cation radicals arising from the photolysis of aromatic hydrocarbons.^[6]

Hartshorn was elected a fellow of the New Zealand Institute of Chemistry in 1969, and a fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand the following year.^[2] In 1973, he received the Hector Memorial Medal,^[7] at that time the highest honour for scientific excellence awarded by the Royal Society of New Zealand.

Death

Hartshorn died in Christchurch on 15 December 2017.^[4]

References

^ ^a ^b "New Zealand, naturalisations, 1843–1981". Ancestry.com Operations. 2010. Retrieved 17 December 2017.
^ ^a ^b "All fellows: G–I". Royal Society of New Zealand. Retrieved 17 December 2017.
^ "Catalogue search". SOLO: Search Oxford Libraries Online. University of Oxford. Retrieved 17 December 2017.
^ ^a ^b "Michael Hartshorn death notice". The Press. 16 December 2017. Retrieved 17 December 2017.
^ "Professores emeriti". University of Canterbury Calendar (PDF). Christchurch: University of Canterbury. p. 13. Retrieved 17 December 2017.
^ Robinson, Ward T.; Edmonds, Michael; Saunders, Darren (April 2011). "Chemistry in Canterbury: 1986–2010" (PDF). Chemistry in New Zealand. New Zealand Institute of Chemistry: 95–101. Retrieved 17 December 2017.
^ "Hector Medal recipients". Royal Society of New Zealand. 2017. Retrieved 17 December 2017.