(1908 – 1987) Chemist

Eric William Fawcett was a Chemist who worked for Imperial Chemical Industries and was involved in the accidental discovery of polyethene in 1933.

Born in 1906 he joined ICI in 1929 as a chemist. In 1931 he travelled to the USA to investigate the composition of petroleum at the National Bureau of Standards but the following year he would return to ICI, where he would work with Reginald Gibson on high pressures. In 1933 he was involved in an experiment to react ethylene with benzaldehyde at high pressure and temperature that produced a small amount of polymer of ethylene. This was not found until the equipment was disassembled though and the commercial production that followed was based on the work of another team. He would leak the news of this discovery at a Cambridge conference in September 1935. Following this, he moved on to other projects within ICI and died in 1987.