The Fulmer Research Institute

Abstract

The Fulmer Research Institute was originally formed in 1946 and recently celebrated its 20th anniversary with the opening, on 30 September 1966, by Sir Paul Chambers, the Chairman of ICI Ltd, of a new laboratory (figure 1), which adds about 6000 ft2 to the 40 000 ft2 that were available previously. Most members of The Institute of Physics and The Physical Society know that the Fulmer Research Institute is now wholly owned by the Institute and Society, and is the first—and probably still the only—contract research organization to be owned by a professional scientific body. However, not all will be aware that the instigator of this imaginative move was Sir James Taylor, then Honorary Treasurer and now President of the Institute and Society, and that the purchase was possible only as a result of the generous terms offered by Sir Paul Chambers and his colleagues on the board of ICI, one of the previous joint owners of the Fulmer Research Institute.