John Monteath Robertson
John Monteath Robertson FRS FRSE PCS CBE LLD (1900–1989) was a 20th-century Scottish chemist and crystallographer. He was the recipient of the Davy Medal in 1960 and president of the Chemical Society from 1962 to 1964. Life He was born on 24 July 1900 at Nether Fordun farm near Auchterarder the son of William Robertson, farmer, and his wife, Jeannie Monteath. He was educated at Auchterarder Primary School then Perth Academy. He then studied chemistry at Glasgow University graduating BSc in 1923, MA in 1925. He then continued as a postgraduate gaining his first doctorate (PhD) in 1926. Under the advisement of G. G. Henderson, he produced a doctoral thesis entitled "The structural relationships of certain members of the bicyclic sesquiterpene series". In his graduate work, he crystallized sesquiterpene derivatives and gave them to William Henry Bragg for X-ray diffraction. He sent a caryophyllene alcohol. The structure was not solved until approximately 30 years later. In 1926, he began work as a researcher at the Royal Institution in London, under the tutelage of Bragg. He continued to work on sesquiterpene derivatives, but also shifted his attention to physics. In 1928 he obtained a post in physics at the University of