Professor Keith Bartle (11th June 1939 – 30th December 2023)
It is with great sadness that we share the news that former Chromatographic Society President Keith Bartle died peacefully at his home in Bristol over the Christmas period at the age of 84. Keith was President of The Society from 1998-2000, but is most well-known for his academic achievements at Leeds University where he was an Emeritus Professor of Physical Chemistry and a Visiting Professor in the Energy & Resources Research Institute.
Keith was educated at the Bradford Technical College and obtained his B.Sc. equivalent in chemistry while working part-time as a laboratory technician at the Coal Tar Research Association with Dr David Grant who introduced him to gas chromatography. An opportunity arose for him to undertake a PhD at Leeds University in NMR, which he seized and was awarded in 1966. After a postdoctoral appointment in NMR, he then undertook a research position in Sweden and then Indiana University where he worked with Prof. Milos Novotny on GC column preparation, as well as the fledgling technique of GC – MS. This was followed by spell working with Milton Lee (Brigham Young University) still focussing on GC. Keith worked with Prof. Lee on numerous occasions over his career and cites their seminal work on coating of fused silica capillary GC columns and one of his proudest contributions to the art.
Keith then joined Leeds University (1969) where he was successively Instructor, Senior Lecturer and was awarded a personal Chair in 1991. His role focused on the teaching laboratories, where he pioneered computer-assisted learning and helped establish a new degree course in chemistry with analytical chemistry (with a strong bias towards separation science) – areas he was rightly proud of. During his time at Leeds University, Keith supervised over 40 PhD students and numerous post-doctoral researchers. His extensive research touched many areas of chromatography including SFC, comprehensive 2D GC (inspired by the late John Phillips at Southern Illinois University), CEC and universal chromatography. In the fields of GC and SFC he was regarded as one of the leading luminaries of his generation. Keith was an outstanding teacher and mentor and this led to a ‘powerhouse’ of separation scientists producing important work across many important sectors including fuel, environmental, polymer and pharmaceutical fields. Keith was an outstanding mentor and help foster great talents either as doctoral or post-doctoral researchers who have become established academics or industrialists in their own fields – Prof. Luigi Mondello and Dr Paola Duga (both University of Messina), Prof. Ali Lewis (University of York), Prof. Daixin Tong, Prof. Tony Edge (Avantor & University of Liverpool), Dr Mark Burford (Unilever) to name but a few. Additionally he collaborated with numerous renowned scientists nationally (e.g. Prof. Tony Clifford (University of Leeds), Prof. David Goodall (University of York), Prof. Peter Myers (University of Liverpool)) and internationally. This illustrates the high regard he was held in academically.
His personal, and groups, research resulted in three books and over 400 research papers. One of Keith’s important contributions in the field of SFC at Leeds University arose when his then head of department, Prof. Peter Gray, encouraged Keith to work with his colleague Tony Clifford to develop the SFC. This led to the formation of one of Leeds University’s first spin-out companies in 1993 called ‘Express Separations’ which used supercritical fluids for both analytical and chemical processing. His work was recognised by the award of the H.G. Franck Medal of the International Tar Conference (1986), the Jubilee Medal of The Chromatographic Society (1990), the M.J.E. Golay Medal (2002), and the Knox Medal of the Royal Society of Chemistry (2016). This is a fitting legacy for someone who did so much for separation science in the UK and abroad.
Keith had been living with a long term degenerative illness for some time, and he and his wife made the leap to leave his beloved Yorkshire to be closer to his children, Caroline and Stephen, and his grandchildren in Bristol. To those that knew him, Keith was fanatical about cricket. He played cricket for nearly 30 years and also watched the game he loved for at least another 30. It’s fitting that his retirement home in Bristol was centred around a cricket pitch where the pavilion was open to all residents to while away the hours, watching the cricket if there was a game on!
Our thoughts are with his wife of 60 years Christine, their two children and grandchildren at this sad time. They, and the world of separation science have lost a great man.
The Chromatographic Society are in discussion with the RSC Separation Science Group on how best to commemorate the passing of one of the UKs most important and influential separation scientists. Details will be announced in due course.
