James Derek Birchall FRS OBE (7 October 1930 – 7 December 1995) was an English inorganic chemist, materials scientist, and inventor who spent most of his career working for Imperial Chemical Industries.
Birchall left primary school, aged 14, and joined an industrial firm in his area, Sutcliffe Speakman[2] as a general laboratory assistant.
After a period of time with John Kerr & Co,[3] and doing his National Service in the army, Birchall joined ICI Salt Division in 1957, as assistant technical officer.
He was then transferred to ICI Cassel Works to apply his expertise to help commission a sodium cyanide plant, and increase the size of the crystals produced.
There then followed a period of outside appointments: In 1992, Birchall took up the post of Professor of Inorganic Chemistry at the University of Keele, where he became interested in the role of silicon in biology.