Derek Long is a former professor of structural chemistry at the University of Bradford

University of Bradford

The University of Bradford is a British university located in the city of Bradford, West Yorkshire, England. The University received its Royal Charter in 1966, making it the 40th University to be created in Britain, but its origins date back to the early 1800s...

, working in the field of Raman spectroscopy

Raman spectroscopy

Raman spectroscopy is a spectroscopic technique used to study vibrational, rotational, and other low-frequency modes in a system.It relies on inelastic scattering, or Raman scattering, of monochromatic light, usually from a laser in the visible, near infrared, or near ultraviolet range...

.

Life

Long was born on 11 August 1925 in Gloucester

Gloucester

Gloucester is a city, district and county town of Gloucestershire in the South West region of England. Gloucester lies close to the Welsh border, and on the River Severn, approximately north-east of Bristol, and south-southwest of Birmingham....

, England and was educated at Sir Thomas Rich's School

Sir Thomas Rich's School

Sir Thomas Rich's School is a grammar school for boys and girls in Longlevens, Gloucester, England, locally known as "Tommies"...

 and Jesus College, Oxford

Jesus College, Oxford

Jesus College is one of the colleges of the University of Oxford in England. It is in the centre of the city, on a site between Turl Street, Ship Street, Cornmarket Street and Market Street...

, where he studied chemistry with Leonard Woodward

Leonard Woodward

Leonard Woodward was a British chemist who was associated with the University of Oxford for more than 30 years, and who was a leading authority in the field of Raman spectroscopy.-Biography:...

 and obtained a first-class honours degree followed by a doctorate. His area of research was Raman spectroscopy

Raman spectroscopy

Raman spectroscopy is a spectroscopic technique used to study vibrational, rotational, and other low-frequency modes in a system.It relies on inelastic scattering, or Raman scattering, of monochromatic light, usually from a laser in the visible, near infrared, or near ultraviolet range...

. He then worked at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis for a year before returning to Oxford in 1950 as a research fellow, and then in 1956 moved to the University College of Wales, Swansea as a lecturer. In 1966, having risen to the rank of Reader

Reader (academic rank)

The title of Reader in the United Kingdom and some universities in the Commonwealth nations like Australia and New Zealand denotes an appointment for a senior academic with a distinguished international reputation in research or scholarship...

 at Swansea, he was appointed Professor of Structural Chemistry at the University of Bradford

University of Bradford

The University of Bradford is a British university located in the city of Bradford, West Yorkshire, England. The University received its Royal Charter in 1966, making it the 40th University to be created in Britain, but its origins date back to the early 1800s...

, the first person to hold the title. He was the first director of the university's Molecular Spectroscopy Unit from 1982 onwards, until his retirement (with the title of Emeritus Professor) in 1992. He has been awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Reims and made a Foreign Member of the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, Rome.

Works

Long's first published paper was co-written with Chapman in 1949 for the Transactions of the Faraday Society on "Relative intensities in the Raman spectra of some Group IV tetrahalides". In total, he published in the region of 200 scientific papers on Raman spectroscopy, including articles on its history and development. He was the first in Britain to construct a recording Raman spectrometer (1948) and a hyper Raman spectrometer (1970). He was the joint founding editor of the Journal of Raman Spectroscopy (1973 onwards), later becoming editor-in-chief. His book, Raman Spectroscopy (1977), has achieved a considerable reputation and been translated into various languages. A further book, The Raman Effect, was published in 2002.