OE Professor Derek Fray addresses Senior Science Society

Professor Derek Fray (OE) from Cambridge University Department of Materials Chemistry gave a thought-provoking lecture to the Senior Science Society.

Professor Derek Fray

His talk was entitled, A simple method of reducing metal oxides; from a laboratory experiment to space exploration, and outlined how a process for removing oxygen atoms from metallic titanium could be developed into a method for producing titanium and other metals from their oxides.

He went on to explain how NASA are interested in the idea to produce oxygen from Titanium-rich rocks on the moon to supply rockets and people for a manned base on the moon.

During a lively question and answer session, he also described a use of the technique to help wounds heal faster by producing oxygen underneath a bandage in a simple portable fashion.

Profesor Fray

(Wellington) 1950 - 1958

In 1958, Derek Fray won a Royal Scholarship to Imperial College, London University to study Metallurgy.

After graduating in 1961, with first-class honours, he undertook research on the properties of fused salts in the Nuffield Research Group, Imperial College.

In 1965, he was awarded the Ph.D. degree and the Matthey Prize.

His distinguished career includes stints at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as well as Cambridge and Leeds Universities, and the Imperial Smelting Corporation.

On 1 February 1996, he became Professor of Materials Chemistry, University of Cambridge and Professorial Fellow, Fitzwilliam College.

He has published over 200 articles on materials processing and is cited as the inventor on over 35 patents. Twelve projects are now under active industrial development both in the U.K., Europe, Australia and the United States.

In 1980, he was awarded the AIME Extractive Metallurgy Technology Award and in 1981, a Nuffield-NSERC Visiting Lectureship at various institutions in Canada, and the Sir George Beilby Medal by the Royal Society of Chemistry for the application of science. In 1987, he was awarded the Kroll medal by the Institute of Metals and, in 1989, he was elected to the Fellowship of the Royal Academy of Engineering.

In 1991, he was awarded the John Phillips medal by the Mineral Industry Research Organisation.

In 1995, he was made an Honorary Professor at the University of Science and Technology, Beijing, China.

A more recent award presented to Derek Fray was the "2000 Distinguished Lecturer" by the Extraction and Processing Division, TMS.

Derek Fray has been very active in research in the fields of materials chemistry. His interest and contribution to the advance of scientific knowledge is well reflected by his publications in both scientific journals and conference proceedings.