A principal aim of this first biography of Robert Le Rossignol, engineer of the Haber process, is to bring new evidence to the attention of the scientific community allowing a re-assessment of the origins of the 'Haber' process. However, the scope of the book is much wider and goes beyond the discovery of 'fixation' to account for a life distinct from Haber, one full of remarkable science, cruel circumstance, personal tragedy and amazing benevolence, the latter made possible by Haber¿s generous financial arrangement with Le Rossignol regarding his royalties from the BASF.

Deri Sheppard was a Graduate of the Royal Institute of Chemistry (GradRIC), University of Salford, Manchester, UK (1970). He has a PhD (Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy), Department of Physical Chemistry, University College (Wales) Cardiff, UK (1974) and a Post Graduate Diploma in Computer Science (CNAA), Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, Polytechnic of Wales, UK (1980). He has been a Member of the Royal Society of Chemistry (MRSC) and a Chartered Chemist (CChem) since 1979.