Dr Frank Ellis (Chemistry 1969, PhD 1972)

Provided by Mrs Barbara Ellis

Frank Ellis - PhD, DIC, BSc, ARCS

Frank Ellis had a love and enthusiasm for life, particularly chemistry, corkscrews, good food and drink, music, travel and long walks in the mountains.

He was a proud Yorkshireman and lived and went to school in Thirsk, which was where he started his interest in chemistry, inspired by his teacher.  He made the great adventurous journey away from “up North” to London, to study chemistry at Imperial College.  Frank spent 6 happy years at Imperial, achieving a BSc and PhD.  His PhD on “Some Synthetic Approaches to Biotin” was sponsored by Shell Research, carried out under the supervision of Dr Peter Sammes, in the Department of Professor Sir Derek Barton.  His future wife, Barbara, was a chemistry student at the same time and many happy hours were spent discussing molecules, reactions and other fascinating topics.  They met a crowd of like-minded fellow chemists, and have kept in touch with many of them since, even organising a few Chemistry Reunions.  Frank took up the folk guitar, inspired by his hero Bob Dylan, and he sang at the IC Folk Club, and ran the Club for several years.

Frank had a long and happy career of 35 years in the pharmaceutical industry, working for the company now known as GlaxoSmithKline GSK.  He joined Allen and Hanbury’s in 1972 as an organic chemist, researching new compounds as possible medicines for asthma and diabetes.  He became a Research Leader, supervising several research teams and collaborating on patents.

Frank was always interested in promoting science to school children, so when the opportunity came up some 10 years ago to do this full time for GSK, he jumped at it and became Schools Liaison Manager.  He used his enthusiasm and communication skills to show children that science and chemistry are fun.  His explosive “Mr Celsius” lectures were greatly enjoyed by children, parents and teachers, and his demonstrations at schools led to numerous letters of thanks with pictures of a wild scientist in a lab coat surrounded by bubbling flasks and exploding balloons.  “Dear Dr Frank – I didn’t like science before, but I do now” were typical gratifying responses he received.  He was responsible for organising student work experience placements, lab visits for teachers, and active science workshops for students.  He also produced novel teaching materials which included interactive websites, virtual lab tours, concept cartoons, science-based games and puppets.  These activities were much appreciated by GSK and the teaching community for positively furthering interest in science, chemistry and the pharmaceutical industry in schools.

Frank was an active member of several organisations such as the Royal Society of Chemistry, Society of Chemical Industry, Association for Science Education, and British Association for the Advancement of Science, and he took active roles on several committees and was a governor at a local school.

Frank’s other passion apart from chemistry was collecting corkscrews, and he was an active member of several international collecting clubs.  He took an enthusiastic and scholarly approach to this hobby, and wrote two books, co-authored with Barbara – “Corkscrews: British Registered Designs”, which involved significant research at the National Archives, and “Corkscrews”, in the Crowood Collectors’ Series.

He died just after his 60th birthday following a sudden short illness, and is sorely missed.
Born 31st March 1948, Died 11th May 2008.