[Q] Well, it seems to me, Norman, I think your period at Cambridge was inspirational in so many different ways, but how would you sum up your experiences? I mean, what value did you take away from Cambridge?

There are several things, one has to say. The first is the atmosphere of the place – one had this feeling that everything was going on around, there were world-famous people that one was meeting all the time, talking about their work, being involved in their work. And one really felt that this was a place where everything was happening and I wanted to take part in it and contribute as well. But, more specifically, I got a feeling from Harry Emeléus of how to tackle preparative chemical research. My work in Melbourne had been… on solid state chemistry, a totally different field and was looking at the properties of nonstoichiometric solids. In Cambridge it was much more preparative work in the lab, but I was preparing compounds and then studying their physical properties as I’ve explained, particularly with relevance to catalysis. But I picked up many techniques there; had good interaction with others in the laboratory and, of course, in the final year with Lennard-Jones, I... indirectly, I learnt some theory as well. So I would say it was a very rounded experience which was an enormously fine basis to build a productive career on.