William Moffitt

William E. Moffitt (9 November 1925 – 19 December 1958) was a British quantum chemist. He died after a heart attack following a squash match. He had been thought to be one of Britain's most gifted academics.

Moffitt was born in Berlin, Germany to British parents; his father was working in Berlin on behalf of the British government. He was educated by private tuition up to the age of 11. He attended Harrow School from 1936–43. His chemistry master later said of him that "he was undoubtably the most able of a decade of gifted boys ... [and] has a profound effect on all who met him. He did more than anyone to create in the school the intellectual climate so necessary for the stimulation of young minds".

He then studied chemistry at New College, Oxford, under an open scholarship, and graduated with first class honours. His D.Phil. supervisor, Charles Coulson, later wrote:

After receiving his D.Phil. for research in quantum chemistry, he joined the research staff of the British Rubber Producers Research Association.

He was made an Assistant Professor at Harvard in January 1953, and was give an A.M Honoris Causa in 1955. His colleague Edgar Bright Wilson said:

Doctoral students who were advised by Moffitt include R. Stephen Berry and S. M. Blinder.

He married Dorothy Silberman in 1956 and had a daughter, Alison in June 1958. He was a keen rugby player and enjoyed music and arts and particularly English literature. While sharing a cabin with a monk on a voyage to the UK from the US, he discussed the philosophy of religion with him in their only common language, Latin.