Sir George Stokes Award 2009 winner

Awarded for his outstanding contribution to the application of analytical science to the arts and archaeology through his development of Raman microscopy for the identification of pigments.

About the winner

Robin Clark was born in New Zealand and educated at Christ's College and the University of Canterbury, Christchurch, before coming to the UK in 1958 for PhD study in chemistry at UCL.

Joining the academic staff at UCL in 1962, he rose to become Dean of Science and then, for 20 years, Sir William Ramsay Professor of Chemistry (recently becoming emeritus). He has lectured widely (in 36 countries) and acted as visiting professor in many universities.

His research in transition metal chemistry, mixed valence chemistry, metal-metal bonding and spectroscopy, which is embodied in over 500 scientific publications, remains very active.

In particular, he has made major contributions to most aspects of Raman and resonance Raman spectroscopy, recently pioneering the application of these and other techniques to the characterisation of pigments in artwork and archaeology - a matter of wide international interest.

His named lectures include the RSC's Tilden, Nyholm, Graham and Liversidge lectures and the Royal Society's UK-Canada Rutherford and Bakerian lectures.

His international awards include the Czech Spectroscopy Association's Marci medal, the Royal Society of New Zealand's Sidey medal and the inaugural Franklin-Lavoisier Prize of the Maison de la Chimie (Paris) and Chemical Heritage Foundation (Philadelphia).

He has served on the Councils of the Royal Society, Royal Institution (Secretary for six years), UCL and the University of London Senate. He was elected Hon FRSNZ in 1989, FRS in 1990 and Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit (CNZM) in 2004.