Alan Soper Explained

Alan Soper
Birth Name:Alan Kenneth Soper
Birth Date:1951 6, df=yes
Birth Place:Romford, Essex
Alma Mater:University of Leicester (BSc, PhD)
Thesis Title:The Structure of Aqueous Solutions
Thesis Url:http://hdl.handle.net/2381/32283
Thesis Year:1977
Doctoral Advisor:John Enderby

Alan Kenneth Soper (born 1951) FRS is an STFC Senior Fellow at the ISIS neutron source based at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in Oxfordshire.

Education

Soper was educated at The Campion School and the University of Leicester where he was awarded a Bachelor of Science degree followed by a PhD in 1977 for research into the structure of aqueous solutions conducted at the Institut Laue–Langevin in Grenoble supervised by John Enderby.[1]

Career

Before moving to RAL in 1997, Soper was a postdoctoral researcher and assistant professor in the Physics Department at the University of Guelph, Ontario in Canada and a staff member at the Los Alamos National Laboratory at Los Alamos, New Mexico in the United States.

Research

Soper's research investigates molecular-level structures in structurally disordered systems.[2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] Soper was chair of the prestigious Gordon Research Conference on Water and Aqueous Solutions in 2008 and is the co-designer of the Near and InterMediate Range Order Diffractometer (NIMROD) instrument[15] [16] [17] [18] on the ISIS neutron source.

Soper is a world expert in the structure of water and water-based solutions at the molecular level. Using experimental techniques such as neutron and X-ray diffraction, combined with computer simulation and structure refinement, Soper investigates the organisation and behaviour of water molecules, including their interaction with other molecules and surfaces. His work has relevance given the importance of water in the biochemical processes of living organisms.

He has characterised the structure of water under extreme conditions – as found miles down at the bottom of the ocean – and in heavily confined water such as occurs in nanoscopic mineral cavities. He has observed that this water is likely to be under significant tension – about −1000 atmospheres.

Awards and honours

Soper was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 2014.[19] His nomination reads:

Soper was made an ISIS neutron source senior research fellow in 2009.[20]

Notes and References

  1. PhD. Alan Kenneth. Soper. The Structure of Aqueous Solutions. ethos.bl.uk. University of Leicester. 1977. 2381/32283. 500569358.
  2. 10.1103/PhysRevLett.84.2881. 11018966. Structures of High-Density and Low-Density Water. Physical Review Letters. 84. 13. 2881–4. 2000. Soper . A. . Ricci . M. . 2000PhRvL..84.2881S .
  3. 10.1063/1.1523917. Structure of molten 1,3-dimethylimidazolium chloride using neutron diffraction. The Journal of Chemical Physics. 118. 273–278. 2003. Hardacre . C. . Holbrey . J. D. . McMath . S. E. J. . Bowron . D. T. . Soper . A. K. . 1. 2003JChPh.118..273H .
  4. 10.1080/00268970802116146. Structural transformations in amorphous ice and supercooled water and their relevance to the phase diagram of water. Molecular Physics. 106. 16–18. 2053–2076. 2008. Soper . A. K. . 2008MolPh.106.2053S . 93052752.
  5. 10.1038/nmat4019. 24947780. Supercooled water: Continuous trends. Nature Materials. 13. 7. 671–3. 2014. Soper . A. K. . 2014NatMa..13..671S .
  6. 22080613. 3223440. 2011. Soper. A. K.. Density minimum in supercooled confined water. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 108. 47. E1192; author reply E1193–4. 10.1073/pnas.1112629108. 2011PNAS..108E1192S . free.
  7. 20647388. 2922569. 2010. Clark. G. N.. Small-angle scattering and the structure of ambient liquid water. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 107. 32. 14003–7. Hura. G. L.. Teixeira. J. Soper. A. K.. Head-Gordon. T. 10.1073/pnas.1006599107. 2010PNAS..10714003C . free.
  8. 20220097. 2851810. 2010. Soper. A. K.. Is ambient water inhomogeneous on the nanometer-length scale?. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 107. 12. E44; author reply E45. Teixeira. J. Head-Gordon. T. 10.1073/pnas.0912158107. 2010PNAS..107E..44S . free.
  9. 10.1126/science.297.5585.1288. 12193774. THERMODYNAMICS: Enhanced: Water and Ice. Science. 297. 5585. 1288–9. 2002. Soper . A. K.. 94631517.
  10. 11976678. 2002. Dixit. S. Molecular segregation observed in a concentrated alcohol-water solution. Nature. 416. 6883. 829–32. Crain. J. Poon. W. C.. Finney. J. L.. Soper. A. K.. 10.1038/416829a. 2002Natur.416..829D . 4414170.
  11. 10097044. 34275. 10.1073/pnas.96.7.3358 . 1999. Sposito. G. Surface geochemistry of the clay minerals. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 96. 7. 3358–64. Skipper. N. T.. Sutton. R. Park. S. Soper. A. K.. Greathouse. J. A.. 1999PNAS...96.3358S. free.
  12. 9892659. 15162. 1999. Pertsemlidis. A. Evidence for microscopic, long-range hydration forces for a hydrophobic amino acid. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 96. 2. 481–6. Soper. A. K.. Sorenson. J. M.. Head-Gordon. T . 10.1073/pnas.96.2.481. 1999PNAS...96..481P . free.
  13. 8855255. 38230. 1996. Pertsemlidis. A. Direct evidence for modified solvent structure within the hydration shell of a hydrophobic amino acid. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 93. 20. 10769–74. Saxena. A. M.. Soper. A. K.. Head-Gordon. T. Glaeser. R. M. . 10.1073/pnas.93.20.10769. 1996PNAS...9310769P . free.
  14. 18286746. 1995. Leberman. R. Effect of high salt concentrations on water structure. Nature. 378. 6555. 364–6. Soper. A. K. . 10.1038/378364a0. 1995Natur.378..364L . 4338724.
  15. 10.1063/1.3331655. 20370190. NIMROD: The Near and Inter Mediate Range Order Diffractometer of the ISIS second target station. Review of Scientific Instruments. 81. 3. 033905–033905–10. 2010. Bowron . D. T.. Soper . A. K.. Jones . K.. Ansell . S.. Birch . S.. Norris . J.. Perrott . L.. Riedel . D.. Rhodes . N. J.. Wakefield . S. R.. Botti . A.. Ricci . M. -A. . Grazzi . F.. Zoppi . M.. 2010RScI...81c3905B .
  16. 10.1063/1.3331655. 20370190. NIMROD: The Near and Inter Mediate Range Order Diffractometer of the ISIS second target station. Review of Scientific Instruments. 81. 3. 033905. 2010. Bowron . D. T.. Soper . A. K.. Jones . K.. Ansell . S.. Birch . S.. Norris . J.. Perrott . L.. Riedel . D.. Rhodes . N. J.. Wakefield . S. R.. Botti . A.. Ricci . M. -A. . Grazzi . F.. Zoppi . M.. 2010RScI...81c3905B .
  17. 10.1103/PhysRevE.90.032301. Neutron diffraction study of aqueous Laponite suspensions at the NIMROD diffractometer. Physical Review E. 90. 3. 2014. Tudisca . V.. Bruni . F.. Scoppola . E.. Angelini . R.. Ruzicka . B.. Zulian . L.. Soper . A. K.. Ricci . M. A.. 032301. 25314440. 2014PhRvE..90c2301T .
  18. http://www.isis.stfc.ac.uk/instruments/nimrod/nimrod2468.html ISIS NIMROD
  19. Web site: https://web.archive.org/web/20151117102216/https://royalsociety.org/people/alan-soper-12322/. Anon. 2014 . 2015-11-17 . Dr Alan Soper FRS . . London . One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from the royalsociety.org website where:
  20. http://www.materialstoday.com/characterization/news/isis-water-legend ISIS water legend

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