Sir Cyril Norman Hinshelwood OM FRS (19 June 1897 – 9 October 1967) was a British physical chemist and expert in chemical kinetics.

[4][5] Born in London, his parents were Norman Macmillan Hinshelwood, a chartered accountant, and Ethel Frances née Smith.

In addition to being named the second Dr. Lee's Professor of Chemistry at Oxford, Hinshelwood was elected Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 1929,[1] serving as president from 1955 to 1960.

With Nikolay Semenov of the USSR, Hinshelwood was jointly awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1956 for his researches into the mechanism of chemical reactions.

He was fluent in seven classical and modern languages and his main hobbies were painting, collecting Chinese pottery, and foreign literature.