Tribute to Jim Emsley

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.