Arthur Campbell (chemist)

Campbell was born in Waimate on 27 May 1925, the son of Mona Sevicke Campbell (née Jones) and David Brown Campbell.[1] He was educated at Waimate High School, and then proceeded to study chemistry at the University of Otago, graduating Master of Science with second-class honours in 1948, and PhD in 1953.[1][2] His doctoral thesis was titled Some applications of acrylonitrile.

In 1950, Campbell married Ruth Florence Smith, and the couple went on to have three children.[1][3]

Robinson was a faculty member in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Otago from 1948 to 1988.[4] He was appointed as an assistant lecturer in 1948, rising to become a professor in 1971, and the Mellor Professor of Chemistry in 1983.[1] He served as a member of the University Council from 1963 to 1971, dean of the Faculty of Science from 1980 to 1982, and head of the Department of Chemistry from 1983 to 1988.[1] When he retired in 1988, he was conferred the title of professor emeritus.[4]

Campbell's early research centred on carboxylic acid derivatives.[5] However, he became interested in organic microanalysis, and developed many analytical procedures, and improved techniques for analysing perfluorinated organic compounds.[5] Campbell served as chair of the Chemical Testing Registration Advisory Committee of the Testing Laboratory Registration Council of New Zealand from 1973 to 1985.[1] Internationally, he was a Bureau Member of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry from 1981 to 1989.[1] The University of Otago's Campbell Microanalytical Laboratory is named in his honour.[5]

Between 1979 and 1980, Campbell was president of the New Zealand Institute of Chemistry.[1]

Campbell's wife, Ruth, died in Dunedin on 18 March 2019.[3] Campbell died in Dunedin on 20 December 2020.[6]

In the 1989 Queen's Birthday Honours, Campbell was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire, for services to science.[7]