Professor James Barber, 1940-2020

Professor James Barber FRS passed away on 5 January 2020.

Professor James Barber FRS, former Head of the Department of Biochemistry (1989-1999) and Dean of the Royal College of Science (1988-1989) at Imperial College London, died on the 5 January 2020 peacefully after a long illness.

After a one year post-doc at the University of Leiden, Jim was appointed lecturer in the Department of Botany and Plant Technology at Imperial in 1968 and became a full professor in 1979. He spent his whole independent career at Imperial but in recent years he also established the Biosolar lab at the Politecnico di Torino and the Solar Fuels lab in NTU Singapore.

Jim’s research was largely focused on the light reactions of photosynthesis, culminating in 2004 in the first refined crystallographic structure of Photosystem II, the water-splitting enzyme, which he obtained in collaboration with Professor So Iwata.

He was awarded many honours for his achievements, including Member of Academia Europaea in 1989, foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences 2003, Fellow of the Royal Society 2005, and President of the International Society of Photosynthesis Research 2007-2010.