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Hazel Rossotti

Hazel Rossotti was a British chemist and science writer.

Last revised
Aug 3, 2026
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Dr
Hazel Rossotti
Born
Hazel Marsh

(1930-02-01)1 February 1930
Died24 December 2023(2023-12-24) (aged 93)
EducationMillfield School
Alma materUniversity of Oxford
Known forChemistry; popular science writing
SpouseFrancis J.C. Rossotti (1927–2019)
Scientific career
Thesis Some investigations of organic reagents for metals  (1954)
Robert Williams

Hazel Rossotti (1 February 1930 – 24 December 2023) was a British chemist and science writer.1

Early life and education

Rossotti (née Marsh) left Millfield School in 1948 and completed her undergraduate and PhD at the University of Oxford.234 Her research considered the stability of metal-ion complexes, and she worked under the supervision of Robert Williams.567 In 1952 she married fellow chemist Francis J.C. Rossotti, a fellow graduate student, at St Peter-in-the-East, now part of St Edmund Hall, Oxford.8

Career

In 1962 Rossotti was appointed a Fellow and Tutor in chemistry at St Anne's College, Oxford, and retired in 1997.9 She was an advisor to Mary Archer, and an Emeritus Fellow at St Anne's College, Oxford.10

Rossotti held a long-standing passion for photography, and became known as an accomplished photographer.11 She specialised in black and white portraits, often of scientists and other colleagues.12 In 1974, Rossotti nominated French artist and photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson for an honorary doctorate at the University of Oxford. To mark this award, Cartier-Bresson gifted Rossotti a silver gelatine print of a 1938 photograph of 'Sunday on the Banks of the River Seine'. This print is now held in the Bodleian libraries.13 In 1997, Rossotti designed and made the stained glass panels in the library building, Hartland house.14

Books

Rossotti published numerous science books, on diverse topics from chemistry to colour, fire and Greece. Oliver Sacks remarked that Rossotti was a born teacher and writer, 'incapable of writing a dull word'.15

  • 1969 - Chemical Applications of Potentiometry16
  • 1970 - H2O17
  • 1971 - Metals18
  • 1975 - Air19
  • 1975 - Introducing Chemistry20
  • 1978 - Study of Ionic Equilibria21
  • 1985 - Why the World Isn't Grey22
  • 1993 - Fire23
  • 1998 - Diverse Atoms24
  • 2006 - Chemistry in the Schoolroom: 18062526
References

References

  1. "Dr Hazel Rossotti (1930 – 2023) | St Anne's College, Oxford".
  2. Davies, John, ed. (2012). "Distinguished Old Millfieldians". Old Millfieldian Society Chronicle: 12. Retrieved 21 July 2023.
  3. "Chemistry in the Schoolroom: 1806". www.authorhouse.co.uk. Retrieved 30 May 2018.
  4. Griffin, Penny (30 June 1986). St Hugh?s: One Hundred Years of Women?s Education in Oxford. Griffin, Penny. London. p. 240. ISBN 9781349077250. OCLC 1004389700.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  5. Hill, H. A. O.; Thomson, A. J. (24 August 2016). "Robert Joseph Paton Williams MBE. 25 February 1926 — 21 March 2015". Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society. 62: 541–570. doi:10.1098/rsbm.2016.0020. ISSN 0080-4606.
  6. Rossotti, Hazel (2 September 2010). "Some relationships among the stabilities of metal complexes". Recueil des Travaux Chimiques des Pays-Bas. 75 (7): 763–768. doi:10.1002/recl.19560750707. ISSN 0165-0513.
  7. Brewer, Leo (18 May 1962). "The Determination of Stability Constants and Other Equilibrium Constants in Solution. Francis J. C. Rossotti and Hazel Rossotti. McGraw-Hill, New York, 1961. xiv + 425 pp. $12.50". Science. 136 (3516): 643–644. doi:10.1126/science.136.3516.643. ISSN 0036-8075. S2CID 95255460.
  8. "St Hugh's College, Oxford - Chronicle 1952-1953". Issuu. Retrieved 30 May 2018.
  9. "The Ship" (PDF). St Anne's College, Oxford. 2012. Archived from the original (PDF) on 24 April 2016. Retrieved 30 May 2018.
  10. "St Anne's College, Oxford > About the College > Emeritus, Honorary, & Supernumerary and Senior Research Fellows". www.st-annes.ox.ac.uk. Archived from the original on 14 July 2016. Retrieved 30 May 2018.
  11. "One Hundred Years of Engineering Science at Oxford, 1908-2008". www.soue.org.uk.
  12. Perks, Bea (23 December 2014). "Goodenough rules". Chemistry World.
  13. "Collection: Silver gelatine print by Henri Cartier-Bresson and associated documents | Bodleian Archives & Manuscripts". archives.bodleian.ox.ac.uk.
  14. "What's in a name? | St Anne's College, Oxford". 14 December 2023.
  15. Sacks, Oliver (9 December 2010). "Oliver Sacks on His Burning Love of 'Fire'". NPR.
  16. Rossotti, Hazel (1969). Chemical applications of potentiometry. London: Van Nostrand. ISBN 978-0442070489. OCLC 36088.
  17. Rossotti, Hazel (1970). H2O. Pugh, Margaret. London: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0199180059. OCLC 30273177.
  18. "Metals :: Hazel Rossotti :: ISBN 0199180091 :: Oxford University Press 1971 :: OBNB, the Open British National Bibliography". obnb.uk. Retrieved 30 May 2018.
  19. Rossotti, Hazel; Phillips, Douglas; Dear, Brian; Dear, Constance (1973). Air. London [etc.] : Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0199180264.
  20. Rossotti, Hazel (1975). Introducing chemistry. Harmondsworth: Penguin. ISBN 978-0140218640. OCLC 2020201.
  21. Rossotti, Hazel (1978). The study of ionic equilibria : an introduction. London: Longman. ISBN 978-0582441750. OCLC 3517031.
  22. Rossotti, Hazel (1984) [1983]. Colour. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0691083698. OCLC 10778491.
  23. Rossotti, Hazel (1993). Fire. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0198557227. OCLC 26163110.
  24. Rossotti, Hazel (1998). Diverse atoms : profiles of the chemical elements. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0198558156. OCLC 37254363.
  25. Marcet, Jane Haldimand (2006). Chemistry in the schoolroom, 1806 : selections from Mrs. Marcet's Conversations on chemistry. Rossotti, Hazel. Bloomington, Ind.: AuthorHouse. ISBN 978-1425905347. OCLC 70139772.
  26. "The woman that inspired Faraday". Chemistry World. Retrieved 30 May 2018.