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Historical Records of Australian Science Historical Records of Australian Science Society
The history of science, pure and applied, in Australia, New Zealand and the southwest Pacific
EDITORIAL

Robert (Robin) Harold Stokes 1918–2016

Thomas H. Spurling A C and Barry N. Noller B
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations

A Centre for Transformative Innovation, Faculty of Business and Law, Swinburne University of Technology, PO Box 218, Hawthorn, Vic. 3122, Australia.

B Centre for Mined Land Rehabilitation, Sustainable Minerals Institute, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Qld 4072, Australia.

C Corresponding author. Email: tspurling@swin.edu.au

Historical Records of Australian Science 30(1) 42-48 https://doi.org/10.1071/HR18018
Published: 6 December 2018

Abstract

Robin Stokes was born in the village of Southsea, on Portsea Island, UK, on 24 December 1918 and died in Armidale, NSW, Australia, on 15 November 2016. He came from a long line of distinguished scientists and mathematicians. Robin was educated at Auckland Grammar School, Auckland University College and the University of Cambridge. He commenced his academic career at the University of Western Australia in 1945 during the post-war reconstruction period, left there to pursue his PhD at Cambridge in 1947 and returned as a senior lecturer in 1950. He took the chair of chemistry at the University of New England in 1955 and remained there for the rest of his career. He made outstanding contributions to our understanding of electrolyte solutions. His book with R. A. Robinson has more than 12,000 citations.


References

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Robinson, R. A., and Wilson, J. M. (1940) A thermodynamic study of bivalent metal halides in aqueous solution: Part III: the activity coefficients of potassium and cadmium iodide at 25 degrees, Transactions of the Faraday Society, 36, 738–740.
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Stokes, R. H. (1999) Polyethylene: built to last, Chemistry in Britain, 35, 20.