Professor John William White, CMG

Order of St Michael and St George

The Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George is an order of chivalry founded on 28 April 1818 by George, Prince Regent, later George IV of the United Kingdom, while he was acting as Prince Regent for his father, George III....

, FRS, FAA

Australian Academy of Science

The Australian Academy of Science was founded in 1954 by a group of distinguished Australians, including Australian Fellows of the Royal Society of London. The first president was Sir Mark Oliphant. The Academy is modelled after the Royal Society and operates under a Royal Charter; as such it is...

, FAIP, FRACI, FRSC

FRSC

FRSC can refer to:* a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada* a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry* the Federal Road Safety Corps of Nigeria...

 BSc

BSC

BSC is a three-letter abbreviation that may refer to:Science and technology* Bachelor of Science , an undergraduate degree* Base Station Controller, part of a mobile phone network; see: Base Station subsystem...

. (Sydney

University of Sydney

The University of Sydney is a public university located in Sydney, New South Wales. The main campus spreads across the suburbs of Camperdown and Darlington on the southwestern outskirts of the Sydney CBD. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and Oceania...

), D.Phil (Oxford

University of Oxford

The University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...

) is currently Professor of Physical and Theoretical Chemistry, Research School of Chemistry, The Australian National University

Australian National University

The Australian National University is a teaching and research university located in the Australian capital, Canberra.As of 2009, the ANU employs 3,945 administrative staff who teach approximately 10,000 undergraduates, and 7,500 postgraduate students...

.

He is a Fellow of the Royal Society and Australian Academy of Science

Australian Academy of Science

The Australian Academy of Science was founded in 1954 by a group of distinguished Australians, including Australian Fellows of the Royal Society of London. The first president was Sir Mark Oliphant. The Academy is modelled after the Royal Society and operates under a Royal Charter; as such it is...

. He is a Past President, Royal Australian Chemical Institute

Royal Australian Chemical Institute

The Royal Australian Chemical Institute Inc. is both the qualifying body in Australia for professional chemists and a learned society promoting the science and practice of chemistry in all its branches. The RACI hosts conferences, seminars and workshops...

 and President of Australian Institute of Nuclear Science and Engineering. He has held the Argonne Fellowship (U. of Chicago) and was for many years a Fellow of St John’s College, Oxford. Between 1975 and 1981 he was Director of the Institut Laue-Langevin

Institut Laue-Langevin

The Institut Laue–Langevin, or ILL, is an internationally-financed scientific facility, situated in Grenoble, France. It is one of the world centres for research using neutrons...

, Grenoble, France. He is a founder member of the International Society for Science and Religion

International Society for Science and Religion

The International Society for Science and Religion is a learned society established in 2001 for the purpose of the promotion of education through the support of inter-disciplinary learning and research in the fields of science and religion conducted where possible in an international and...

Research on Nanoscale Structure at Oil/Water Interface

Professor White and his team have developed a simple method to produce a stable, thin (~90 Å) oil film on the surface of pure water, suitable for direct measurements of the oil-water interface using ellipsometry, X-ray or neutron reflectometry, or other experimental methods. The layer is simply formed from the co-spreading of an aliphatic non-volatile hydrocarbon oil (chain lengths between 8-30 methylene repeats) and a polymeric polyisobutylene- succinic amide (PIBSA) of mean molecular mass of 1200 g mol–1 from a solution in toluene. The toluene solution is directly spread on an aqueous surface to produce the homogenous oil layer. This mixed oil-water surface layer has a well-defined surface pressure-surface area isotherm (measured on a Langmuir trough) and reflects X-rays strongly - indicating a smoothness of a few Ångstroms at most. Related research investigates nanoparticle interactions with protein. The public health implications of this research have also been evaluated.

Honours & Awards

He has been awarded fellowships of the Royal Society of Chemistry (1982), the Royal Australian Chemical Institute (1986), the Australian Institute of Physics (1986), the Royal Society of London (1993) and the Australian Academy of Sciences (1991). He has received the H. G. Smith Medal (1997), the Craig Medal (2005) and the Leighton Medal (2005).