---
title: "James Lovelock"
chunk: 5/5
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Lovelock"
category: "reference"
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
date_saved: "2026-05-05T04:07:09.585027+00:00"
instance: "kb-cron"
---

== Awards and recognition ==
Lovelock was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1974. His nomination reads: Lovelock has made distinguished contributions to several diverse fields, including a study of the transmission of respiratory infection, and methods of air sterilisation; the role of Ca and other divalent ions in blood clotting; damage to various living cells by freezing, thawing and thermal shock and its prevention by the presence of neutral solutes; methods of freezing and thawing small live animals; methods for preparing sperm for artificial insemination, which have been of major economic importance.
He has invented a family of ionisation detectors for gas chromatography. His electron capture detectors are the most sensitive that have been made and are universally used on pollution problems for residual halogen compounds. He has many inventions, including a gas chromatograph, which will be used to investigate planetary atmospheres.
His chromatographic work has led to investigation of blood lipids in various animals, including arteriosclerotic humans. He has made a study of detecting life on other planets by analysis of their atmosphere and extended this to world pollution problems.

His work generally shows remarkable originality, simplicity and ingenuity.
Lovelock was awarded a number of prestigious prizes, including the Tswett Medal for Chromatography (1975), the American Chemical Society Award in Chromatography (1980), the World Meteorological Organization Norbert Gerbier–MUMM Award (1988), the Dr A. H. Heineken Prize for Environmental Sciences (1990) and the Royal Geographical Society Discovery Lifetime award (2001). In 2006 he received the Wollaston Medal, the Geological Society of London's highest award, whose previous recipients include Charles Darwin. Lovelock was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for services to the study of the Science and Atmosphere in the 1990 New Year Honours and a Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour (CH) for services to Global Environmental Science in the 2003 New Year Honours.

=== Portraits ===
In March 2012, the National Portrait Gallery unveiled a new portrait of Lovelock by British artist Michael Gaskell, which was completed in 2011. The collection also has two photographic portraits by Nick Sinclair (1993) and Paul Tozer (1994). The archive of the Royal Society of Arts has a 2009 image taken by Anne-Katrin Purkiss. Lovelock agreed to sit for sculptor Jon Edgar in Devon during 2007, as part of the Environment Triptych (2008) along with heads of Mary Midgley and Richard Mabey. A bronze head is in the collection of the sitter, and the terracotta is in the artist's archive.

== Honours ==

=== Commonwealth honours ===

=== Scholastic ===

==== University degrees ====

==== Chancellor, visitor, governor, rector and fellowships ====

==== Honorary degrees ====

=== Memberships and fellowships ===

== Personal life ==
Lovelock married Helen Hyslop in 1942. They had four children and remained married until her death in 1989 from multiple sclerosis. He first met his second wife, Sandy, at the age of 69. Lovelock stated of their relationship: "... you would find the life of me and my wife Sandy to be an unusually happy one in simple beautiful but unpretentious surroundings."
Lovelock turned 100 in 2019. He died at his home in Abbotsbury, Dorset, on his 103rd birthday in 2022, of complications related to a fall.

== Published works ==

== See also ==
Gaianism

== References ==

== Further reading ==

== External links ==

Personal website 
EFN website reviewed and approved by Lovelock
James Lovelock collected news and commentary at The Guardian 
James Lovelock on the History of Modern Biomedicine Research Group website
James Lovelock at IMDb 
Portraits of James Lovelock at the National Portrait Gallery, London 
Obituary (BBC News Online) at the Wayback Machine (archived 27 July 2022)
Interviews and public lectures

James Lovelock – Scientist Deprecated link archived 9 February 2013 at archive.today, Christopher Sykes, Web of Stories, 2001
Reflections on meeting James Lovelock at the Wayback Machine (archived 7 March 2006), Creel Commission, 2005
Forum: James Lovelock and "The Revenge of Gaia" at the Wayback Machine (archived 16 June 2008), Michael Krasny, KQED, 2006
Climate change on the living Earth at the Wayback Machine (archived 12 November 2007), Royal Society, 2007
The Prophet of Climate Change: James Lovelock at the Wayback Machine (archived 7 November 2009), Jeff Goodell, Rolling Stone, 2007
Profile of James Lovelock at the Wayback Machine (archived 25 January 2008), David Cayley, Ideas, 2008
Dr. James Lovelock Lecture at the Wayback Machine (archived 29 June 2011), Corporate Knights, 2009
James Lovelock, The Forum, 2009
The Vanishing Face of Gaia at the Wayback Machine (archived 25 March 2009), Tim Radford, RSA Vision, 2009
Life story interview with James Lovelock at the Wayback Machine (archived 30 July 2012), Paul Merchant, Oral History of British Science, 2010
"I promise this story about microwaves is interesting." on YouTube, Tom Scott, 2021