He was a member of the Council of the Royal Institution and the Royal Society of Chemistry. He has honorary doctorates from the University of Utrecht, the University of Leicester (where he sits on the university Court), Mendeleev University in Moscow, and Kazan State Technological University. He retired in 2007, and since then has been a full-time author.

In 1996 he was awarded the Title of Distinction of Professor of Chemistry. In 1969, he won the Royal Society of Chemistry's Meldola Medal. He returned to Britain in 1965 as a fellow and tutor of Lincoln College, Oxford, and lecturer in physical chemistry (later, professor of physical chemistry). Atkins then took a postdoctoral position at UCLA as a Harkness Fellow of the Commonwealth fund. He studied for A-levels by himself and gained a place, following a last-minute interview, at the University of Leicester.Ītkins studied chemistry there, obtaining a BSc degree in chemistry, and a PhD degree in 1964 for research into electron spin resonance spectroscopy, and other aspects of theoretical chemistry. Atkins is also the author of a number of popular science books, including Atkins' Molecules, Galileo's Finger: The Ten Great Ideas of Science and On Being.Ītkins left school ( Dr Challoner's Grammar School, Amersham) at fifteen and took a job at Monsanto as a laboratory assistant.

He is a prolific writer of popular chemistry textbooks, including Physical Chemistry, Inorganic Chemistry, and Molecular Quantum Mechanics. Peter William Atkins FRSC (born 10 August 1940) is an English chemist and a Fellow of Lincoln College at the University of Oxford.

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