Ronald J. Gillespie

Ronald J. Gillespie (b. 1924 in London, England) is Emeritus Professor. at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. He received his B.Sc., Ph.D., and D.Sc. degrees from London University in 1945, 1949, and 1957, respectively. He then taught at the Department of Chemistry of University College, London. Since 1958, he has been at McMaster University. He was elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 1965 and Fellow of the Royal Society (London) in 1977. 

I was born in 1924 in London. When I was 11,1 was awarded a scholarship to the local grammar school. Although my parents did not have to pay fees, they did have to pay for school uniforms, sports clothing, and train fares, which was difficult for them. 1 enjoyed school and did fairly well. During the term, my performance was only average because I spent a lot of time playing sports, but 1 did well on the final exams, particularly in 

I continued with my research on sulfuric acid, now quite independently from Ingold. From time to time, he sent a student to me. Ingold chose his students and allocated others to the faculty. I started to branch out, looking at the conductivity of solutions of other substances in sulfuric acid and measuring acidities. That s how I got interested in superacids. 

The Commonwealth Fund Fellowship gave me sufficient money to buy a second-hand car to tour the U.S. and then write up my impressions of the States. My wife had stayed behind in Britain, but she came over for the summer and we toured and eamped all around the U.S. and into 

Canada. It was then that I began to think that it might be a good idea to move to North America. 

---

CORRESPONDENCE Ronald J. GILLESPIE, Department of Chemistry, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada L8S 4M e-mail gillespi mcmaster.ca... 

TEXAS A M UNIVERSITY, COLLEGE STATION, TEXAS RONALD J. GILLESPIE... 

Y"]h Ronald J. Gillespie, James N. l l Spencer, and Richard S. Moog, "Demystifying Introductory Chemistry Part 1. Electron Configurations from Experiment," J. Chem. Educ., Vol. 73,1996, 617-622. 

Moog, and Ronald J. Gillespie, "Demystifying Introductory Chemistry. Part 4 An Approach to Reaction Thermodynamics Through Enthalpies, Entropies, and Free Energies of Atomization," /. Chem. Educ.i Vol. 73,1996, 631—636. 

Ronald S. Nyholm and Ronald J. Gillespie Valence shell electron pair repulsion (VSEPR) approach to structure... 

---