Vol. 14 No. 3 March 1977 of the Analytical Division of the Chemical Society Society for Analytical Chemistry Gold Medal As announced in the February issue of Proceedings (p. 19), the twelfth Society for Analytical Chemistry Gold Medal has been awarded to Professor T. S. West. Professor T. S . West was born in Peterhead, Aberdeenshire on November 18th, 1927, and received his secondary education at the Royal Academy, Tain, Ross-shire, where he developed an intense interest in the chemistry and physics side of science.As a winner of the 1945 Highlands and Islands Bursary competition he was able to go to Aberdeen University to study chemistry, mathematics, physics and geology. He graduated with 1st Class Honours in Chemistry in 1949 and proceeded to do his PhD work on analytical chemistry at the University of Birmingham under Professor R.Belcher, who had aroused his interest in this branch of chemistry during his period as lecturer on the staff at Aberdeen University. Following the completion of his PhD research programme on titrants based on (a) unusual valency states and (b) the determination of water, he was awarded a DSIR Research Fellowship to work with Professor Belcher on the ultramicro-analysis of organic compounds.He often reflects on how he was able to get married and start his family on the stipend of fI600 p.a. for the 3-year period concerned. During this time he undertook the construction of a quartz-fibre ultramicro-balance and the development of handling techniques. He was responsible, with Professor Belcher, for the direction of all of the first group of research students in this area.He was appointed Lecturer in Chemistry at Birmingham Univer- sity in 1955 and was awarded the Meldola Medal of the Royal Institute of Chemistry for 1956- an award considered each year for chemists aged 30 or below whose research work shows most promise. During his time in Birmingham he developed techniques of spectrochemical and electro- chemical analysis in addition to ultramicro- analysis and did a considerable volume of work on the development of chelating agents in trace analysis and chelatometry.He tends to look back on this period as the golden era of analytical chemistry. In 1963 he was appointed to the newly created Readership in Analytical Chemistry at Imperial College of Science and Technology of the University of London and in 1965 to the newly established Chair in Analytical Chemistry.At Imperial College he rapidly built up a large and intensively active research team specialising in the techniques of molecular absorption and fluorescence spectroscopy, elec- trochemistry and separation techniques, but especially in the analytical techniques of atomic spectroscopy, e.g., atomic-fluorescence spectroscopy, non-dispersive fluorescence, resistively heated (electrothermal) atomisation and spectral-line sources.The research group, 49led by Professor West and his team leaders, Drs. R. M. Dagnall, B. Fleet and G. F. Kirk- bright, established a pre-eminent international reputation for their work in analytical chemistry and attracted postgraduate (PhD) research students from all over the world, including Argentina, Australia, Bangladesh, Brazil, Can- ada, Czechoslovakia, Egypt, German Federal Republic, Hong Kong, India, Iran, Iraq, Japan, Kenya, Nepal, New Zealand, Norway, Pakistan, Poland, Singapore, Sri Lanka, South Africa, Spain, Sudan, Syria, Turkey, USA, USSR, Venezuela and Yugoslavia, as well as MSc students from these and other countries. Professor West served on most committees of the Society for Analytical Chemistry and was President of the SAC from 1969 to 1971.He played a decisive role in the forma- tion of the new Chemical Society and in 1972 he became the first Secretary of The Chemical Society and Chairman of its External Relations Board until he resigned the post in 1974 due to protracted visits abroad during that year and other responsibilities.In 1974 he was the third Theophilus Redwood Lecturer of the CS Analytical Division and in the following year he was the recipient of the 1975 Chemical Society Award in Chemical Analysis and Instrumentation. In 1967 he toured South Africa at the invitiation of the SA Chemical Institute and in 1968 he was the CS Travelling Lecturer to Australia and New Zealand.He was the NRC -Nuffield Visiting Lecturer to several Canadian Universities in 1974, and for a short period during the same year held the post of Distinguished Visiting Professor at the University of Florida. In 1976 he was appoin- ted by the Japan Society for the Promotion of 50 SAC MEDALS PYOC. Analyt.Div. Chem. SOC. Science as a visiting lecturer to five Japanese Universities. On the International scene Professor West has served on the Nomenclature Commission of the Analytical Division of IUPAC for many years, eight of them as Secretary. He was elected as the UK representative of the Analytical Division of IUPAC in 1971 on an international vote and was elected Vice-president of the Division in 1975.At the General Assembly of IUPAC in Warsaw in August, 1977, he will become President of the Analytical Division for a period of 4 years. He has also served on five occasions as one of the UK delegates to the IUPAC Council and has been Chairman of the Analytical Sub-committee of the Royal Society’s British National Committee for Chemistry for several years and ex ojicio a member of the main BNC committee.In 1975 he resigned the Chair of Analytical Chemistry at Imperial College to assume the Directorship of the Macaulay Institute for Soil Research in Aberdeen. His association with Imperial College continued through his appoint- ment as Honorary Professor for a further period of 2 years, during which time his respon- sibilities as supervisor for London University registered students is being phased out. Professor West, as twelfth SAC Gold Medallist, says he is very pleased to join such a dis- tinguished company, but particularly to follow in the footsteps of his former supervisor, Professor Ron Belcher, and his eminent spectroscopist predecessor at the Macaulay Institute, Dr. Bob Mitchell. He lives just outside Aberdeen and, although he confesses to missing some aspects of life in London, is very glad he no longer has to commute through its crowds every morning and evening.