Tribute to Jim Emsley

I started as a lecturer in the Department the same year as Jim,1967, and for the thirteen years we overlapped until I moved to London really appreciated Jim as a wonderful colleague and excellent scientist I have never forgotten the productive atmosphere and collegiality of the Department in those years of expansion and Jim typified this. He will surely be missed

I was first grateful to Jim about 55 years ago being an owner and reader of two volumes of Emsley, Feeney and Sutcliffe. It was a great help when Cambridge Chemistry had a Varian XL100 installed in 1972. So it was a great pleasure to become a colleague of Jim's in Southampton a few years later. Jim was always engaging, informative and encouraging. I even had a paper with him on structure of a platinum complex in a liquid crystal, with Jim very much the leading author. My best wishes to Jim's family and friends all of whom will be aware that he has given much inspiration to so many people.

Jim was my PhD supervisor; he was a fantastic supervisor and a lovely man as well, infinitely patient as I tried to get my head around NMR in liquid crystals and asked him question after question. I still have his handwritten notes on the theory of NMR in liquid crystals, far too precious to me then to be discarded. Once, when I was at a conference with him, as we were talking someone came up to him and said 'I'd like to shake your hand because you are one of the most eminent scientists in the field'. Such was his modest and unassuming nature that to my shame I hadn't realised quite how eminent he indeed was. In subsequent years I said to many PhD students I interacted with what a great time I had doing my PhD, and a huge part of that was Jim's wonderful, patient supervision. When I met him some time later, he told me that it used to be the case that Lyndon was known as Jim's son, but added with pride that it was now the case that he was known as Lyndon's dad. My condolences to his family.

I first met Jim almost 50 years ago. He very kindly invited me to speak in his session at the 1978 RSC international NMR meeting in York, and shortly afterwards he was my external DPhil examiner. Over the years we met occasionally at conferences, but it was only in 2011, when I joined the editorial board of Progress in NMR Spectroscopy, that I got to know him better. Jim was the ideal editor, with an encyclopaedic knowledge of the field and its practitioners, a sharp set of critical faculties, and a bone-dry, puckish sense of humour. For many years he and Jim Feeney ran the journal between them, commissioning and copy-editing everything themselves. The new board had twice the number of members but still struggled to match the Jims’ productivity. Jim remained an active and incisive contributor to editorial discussions long after his formal retirement, attending board meetings in person until Covid forced their suspension. Over almost 70 years he made a unique contribution to NMR, both through his own work on liquid crystals and through his and Jim Feeney’s generous championing of the best research across the whole field of magnetic resonance.

My condolences to Jim's family. I have fond memories of him, especially at the start of my career at Southampton. He was an amazing scientist and teacher.

Dear Jim, it has been a pleasure to share an office with you over the years, first when I was a doctoral student and later as friends. Thank you for your advice throughout that time, always filled with wisdom and foresight. I will miss the thoughtful conversations and your perspective very much.

Although I never had the opportunity to meet Professor Emsley personally, his groundbreaking work in magnetic resonance has been a guiding light for my own research. His legacy will undoubtedly continue to inspire future generations of scientists. My deepest condolences to his family, friends, and colleagues.

First, let me express my deepest condolence to the family of Professor Emeritus Jim Emsley for his departure. I got this sad news only today. Many fond memories of him came back to me. It was during his undergraduate NMR lecture he mentioned the liquid crystals science. As a young and naïve Malaysian student, just arrived in the UK, I was fascinated when he told us that one day, a liquid crystal display (LCD) television screen will hang like a picture frame. That lecture was in 1979, I pursued the subject, became his student and took up the research in liquid crystals when I came home and the rest as they say, is history. I am indebted to Professor Jim Emsley or simply “Jim” to many of us in the Southampton Liquid Crystal Group, which was steered by Professor Geoffrey Luckhurst and Professor Jim Emsley. Jim is the best teacher in many aspects of NMR and Liquid Crystals science. He was a great scientist and researcher excellent in those fields he dedicated his entire life to. He was soft spoken, very cultured and to a young “Miss Hashim” as he often called me, I was awe inspired by his gentle mannerism. He was a fatherly figure to me and during the preparation of our first paper, he used to say that my name will be “famous”, as one of the discoverers of the effect of solute in liquid crystals. The Saupe ordering matrices for solutes in uniaxial liquid crystals: experiment and theory JW Emsley, R Hashim, GR Luckhurst, GN Rumbles, FR Viloria Molecular Physics 49 (6), 1321-1335 I know, it was his way to encourage me to complete the task I was asked to do. I did not believe him. But still, I remember this “supervisor trick” and applied to my students later on. In 2010, we bump into each other, beside the Southampton Library, as I was walking towards the cafeteria and he was coming from the opposite direction, he exclaimed “Oh Miss Hashim, you haven’t change”. Whatever he meant by that, maybe he also remembered the “young me” in his NMR class in 1979. Rest in peace dear Jim.

My condoleance to the members of the family of Jim Emsley. I was fortunate enough to meet him during my PhD, when I was working on NMR in liquid crystals, and later in various NMR conferences. He was a great scientist with a deep insight into the physics and chemistry of oriented phases. But he was also an extremely kind person with a touch of British humour. I always enjoyed talking to him. He will be missed.

My condolences to Lyndon and to Jim's family. I had the honour to meet and talk to Jim a few times at different conferences and scientific events. He has been always so kind and friendly, really always helping and interacting. I learnt a lot from him, and his great impact on the world around him.

Jim was my PhD co-supervisor and subsequently a wonderful colleague. His kind and patient mentoring in my scientifically formative years was a key contributor to my not losing heart. It was only later when I got to know him as a colleague that I started appreciating how rare it is for an exceptional scientist like him to be so understated and unpretentious. And with a fine line in dry humour, especially when you least expected it! The world is a greyer place for all of us now, but more so for his nearest and dearest. My heart goes out to them.

It was a pleasure of PhDs and postdocs at Southampton to share an office with Jim who was always happy to discuss aspects of our projects. I also enjoyed seeing Jim in Lyon a few years later. He will be missed.

I want to offer my condolences to Lyndon and other family members on the loss of Jim Emsley, who on both the personal as well as scientific level had a profoundly beneficial effect upon the development of NMR. I remember learning so much from his classic NMR text with Feeney and Sutcliffe as coauthors, written before the explosion of fine books on NMR that subsequently followed. His leadership in establishing the extraordinarily useful series Progress in NMR Spectroscopy is something we can all be grateful for (I remember the discussions we had about a possible review article topic he suggested). From our early shared interest in liquid crystals and oriented solutes, I always enjoyed talking with him when we would occasionally meet at various NMR conferences in the US or Europe, because of both his scientific insights but also his wonderful personality. He will be missed.

I have many happy memories of interacting with Jim over the years. In particular, Jim was the internal examiner and helped me when I was external PhD examiner for the first time, at Southampton. I also remember Jim’s encouraging role as editor for my Progress in NMR Spectroscopy review article on Probing proton–proton proximities in the solid state that I had submitted in 2006. Last year, although Jim was frail, I was glad to have the opportunity to chat again with him at the RSC conference in Southampton during the drinks reception before the conference dinner.

Jim was an extremely kind and supportive colleague and friend, and although never one to boast about his own achievements, was truly an exceptional scientist. It was a privilege to have known him, and I send my condolences to Lyndon, Julia and his wider family.

The death of Professor (Emeritus) James William Emsley (better known as “Jim”) of the University of Southampton is a great lost. Yesterday, I learned of the death of Professor (Emeritus) James William Emsley (better known as “Jim”) of the University of Southampton. This is very sad news for NMRists working with oriented media. He was one of the pioneers (along with Zeev Luz and Aharon Loewenstein, for instances, two other mentors of my career) of NMR spectroscopy in aligned media (historically using thermotropic liquid crystals) and has contributed to the development of numerous tools aimed at simplifying the analysis of anisotropic NMR spectra for over 40 years. His latest article (a review) was published in Prog. Nucl. Magn. Reson. at the end of 2025. He was a brilliant and exceptional scientist, but also a kind person full of humanity. I greatly enjoyed our discussions over the years. Thanks to him, I learned a great deal during my postdoctoral studies in Southampton (October 1995 - October 1996) working alongside him, and then during our years of collaboration. It was a pleasure and an honor for me to publish 11 articles with him. Llittle anecdote : I introduced him to a typical French dish: escargots. He remained very diplomatic. My sincere condolences to his family, loved ones, and in particular his son Lyndon, another famous NMR spectroscopist.

My condolences to Lyndon and the other member's of Jim's family. I had the chance to meet and talk to Jim a only once in Florence few years back. He was always kind and friendly and respectful

Emsley, Feeney and Sutcliffe, what NMR legends, what legacies! It was a privilege to share the “big office” with you and other NMRists during my time in Southampton (2014-2015). I came to appreciate the beauty of your Lab books. I have never seen such elegant records. I hope they are being preserved. It was an honour to know you, Jim. Vale.

My condolences to Lyndon and the other member's of Jim's family. I had the chance to meet and talk to Jim a few times whenever he visited Lyon. He was always kind and friendly. Jim had a long a successful life and made a great impact on the world around him.

Dear Jim It was very difficult for me to write these few words of condolence; there are so many memories of wonderfull times spent together in Southampton and in Cosenza that come back to me. A very good "Maestro", but even more a great friend, you were to me. I owe you so much

I always enjoyed talking to Jim in the Coffee room at work. Such a pleasant, friendly and knowledgeable colleague.

Jim Emsley was a very important supporter of me, in particular at the early stages of my career. Due to his important role in the British NMR community and worldwide this helped me a lot, in particular during the period when the “old” NMR spectroscopists in Germany did not understand my experiments and consequently did not appreciate them. Thank you so much Jim. Hans W. Spiess

NMR has always been an important part of my research. I was brought up on ”Emsley, Feeney and Sutcliffe” a standard text that is as useful today as it was when first written. And there were many more seminal contributions, with Jim’s editorship of “Progress in NMR Spectroscopy” for over 40 years deserving a special mention, again in partnership with Jim Feeney and Les Sutcliffe. They were an outstanding internationally leading team in the ever-advancing field of NMR spectroscopy. This influence was wide: across the disciplines of chemistry, biology and medicine. Jim will be greatly missed, but his enormous influence on scientific research and teaching will be forever remembered. Peter Sadler Professor P.J. Sadler FRS University of Warwick

Dear Jim, you've been a wonderful friend and mentor down the years. I will miss you.