Stanley (Stan) R. Johns

Early life

Stan was born in Cessnock, NSW, on 8 July 1935 and completed his secondary education at Cessnock High School. He obtained his B.Sc (Hons) degree in 1956 from the University of New England and then went as NSW State Cancer Council scholar to the University of Sydney to study for his PhD degree.

Time at CSIRO

He joined the CSIRO Division of Organic Chemistry as a research scientist on 21 July 1964 and remained with that Division and its successors until his death. Stan was promoted to senior principal research scientist in 1978.

Stan’s first paper was based on his honours thesis and appeared in 1960.

Stan was one of the pioneers of nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy in Australia. He made another major contributions to chemistry  in the study of the structure and function of biomembranes and the structure and conformation of polymers.

Another great contribution to chemistry in Australia was his ability to demonstrate the application of various nuclear magnetic resonance techniques to solve diverse chemical problems.

Stan was enthusiastic contributor to the Royal Australian Chemical Institute. His involvement started with the formation of the organic chemistry division and culminated in his term as Honorary General Secretary from 1980 to 1984.

Adapted from a submission by Ian Willing and Tom Spurling to CoResearch, CSIRO’s staff newsletter (no. 297, November 1986), p. 6

Related informaton

http://www.eoas.info/biogs/P002980b.htm