Sir Alfred Brian Pippard, FRS (7 September 1920 – 21 September 2008), was a British physicist. He was

Cavendish Professor of Physics The Cavendish Professorship is one of the senior faculty positions in physics at the University of Cambridge. It was founded on 9 February 1871 alongside the famous Cavendish Laboratory, which was completed three years later. William Cavendish, 7th ...

from 1971 until 1982 and an Honorary Fellow of

Clare Hall, Cambridge Clare Hall is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1966 by Clare College, Clare Hall is a college for advanced study, admitting only postgraduate students alongside postdoctoral researchers and fellows. It was est ...

, of which he was the first President.

Biography

Pippard was born in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

in 1920 and his father was the engineer Alfred Pippard. He was educated at

Clifton College Clifton College is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school in the city of Bristol in South West England, founded in 1862 and offering both boarding school, boarding and day school for pupils aged 13–18. In its early years, unlike mo ...

and

Clare College, Cambridge Clare College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England. The college was founded in 1326 as University Hall, making it the second-oldest surviving college of the Unive ...

, where he graduated with MA (Cantab) and PhD degrees. After working as a scientific officer in

radar Radar is a system that uses radio waves to determine the distance ('' ranging''), direction ( azimuth and elevation angles), and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It is a radiodetermination method used to detect and track ...

research during the Second World War, he was appointed as a Demonstrator in Physics at the University of Cambridge in 1946, subsequently becoming a Lecturer in the subject in 1950, a Reader in 1959, and the first John Humphrey Plummer Professor of Physics a year later. In 1971 he was elected Cavendish Professor of Physics. Pippard demonstrated the reality, as opposed to the mere abstract concept, of

Fermi surface In condensed matter physics, the Fermi surface is the surface in reciprocal space which separates occupied electron states from unoccupied electron states at zero temperature. The shape of the Fermi surface is derived from the periodicity and sym ...

s in metals by establishing the shape of the Fermi surface of

copper Copper is a chemical element; it has symbol Cu (from Latin ) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkish-orang ...

through measuring the reflection and absorption of microwave electromagnetic radiation (see the anomalous skin effect). He also introduced the notion of coherence length in

superconductors Superconductivity is a set of physical properties observed in superconductors: materials where electrical resistance vanishes and magnetic fields are expelled from the material. Unlike an ordinary metallic conductor, whose resistance decreases ...

in his proposal for the non-local generalisation of the

London equations The London equations, developed by brothers Fritz and Heinz London in 1935, are constitutive relations for a superconductor relating its superconducting current to electromagnetic fields in and around it. Whereas Ohm's law is the simplest con ...

concerning

electrodynamics In physics, electromagnetism is an interaction that occurs between particles with electric charge via electromagnetic fields. The electromagnetic force is one of the four fundamental forces of nature. It is the dominant force in the interacti ...

superfluids Superfluidity is the characteristic property of a fluid with zero viscosity which therefore flows without any loss of kinetic energy. When stirred, a superfluid forms vortices that continue to rotate indefinitely. Superfluidity occurs in two i ...

and superconductors. The non-local kernel proposed by Pippard, inferred on the basis of Chambers' non-local generalisation of

Ohm's law Ohm's law states that the electric current through a Electrical conductor, conductor between two Node (circuits), points is directly Proportionality (mathematics), proportional to the voltage across the two points. Introducing the constant of ...

) can be deduced within the framework of the BCS ( Bardeen, Cooper and Schrieffer) theory of superconductivity (a comprehensive description of the details of the London–Pippard theory can be found in the book by Fetter and Walecka). Pippard was the author of ''Elements of Classical Thermodynamics for Advanced Students of Physics'', ''Dynamics of Conduction Electrons'', and ''The Physics of Vibration''. He also co-authored the three-volumes encyclopaedia ''Twentieth Century Physics''. As the Cavendish Professor of Physics at

Cavendish Laboratory The Cavendish Laboratory is the Department of Physics at the University of Cambridge, and is part of the School of Physical Sciences. The laboratory was opened in 1874 on the New Museums Site as a laboratory for experimental physics and is named ...

, University of Cambridge, he compiled ''Cavendish Problems in Classical Physics'', based in large part on past examination questions for Cambridge physics students. Pippard was the doctoral supervisor of Brian David Josephson (awarded

PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

in Physics in 1964) who in 1973 received the

Nobel Prize in Physics The Nobel Prize in Physics () is an annual award given by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences for those who have made the most outstanding contributions to mankind in the field of physics. It is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the ...

(together with Leo Esaki and

Ivar Giaever Ivar Giaever (, ; born April 5, 1929) is a Norwegian-American solid-state and biophysicist who shared the 1973 Nobel Prize in Physics with Leo Esaki and Brian Josephson. One half of the prize was awarded jointly to Esaki and Giaever "for the ...

) for his discovery of what is known as the

Josephson effect In physics, the Josephson effect is a phenomenon that occurs when two superconductors are placed in proximity, with some barrier or restriction between them. The effect is named after the British physicist Brian Josephson, who predicted in 1962 ...

References

Obituaries

* Anthony Tucker, ''Sir Brian Pippard'', The Guardian, Wednesday, 25 September 2008

* John Waldram, ''Professor Sir Brian Pippard (1920–2008)'', News and Events, University Offices, University of Cambridge, 24 September 2008

* ''Professor Sir Brian Pippard (1920–2008)'', Cambridge Network, 25 September 2008

(Reproduced from ''University of Cambridge Office of Communications''). * John Waldram, ''Brian Pippard (1920–2008): Low-temperature physicist who excelled in subtle intuitive concepts'', Nature 455, 1191 (30 October 2008)

* ''Professor Sir Brian Pippard'', Telegraph, 23 September 2008

* ''Professor Sir Brian Pippard: Cambridge physicist'', The Times, 25 September 2008

* Richard J. Eden, Richard Eden, ''Professor Sir Brian Pippard: Physicist who proved the existence of the Fermi surface and was the first President of Clare Hall, Cambridge'', The Independent, Tuesday, 7 October 2008

* Hamish Johnston, ''Sir Brian Pippard: 1920–2008'', PhysicsWorld, 24 September 2008

External links

The Cavendish Professorship of Physics
, Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge, Department of Physics.

* Professor George Zarnecki, ''Lives remembered: Professor George Zarnecki and Professor Sir Brian Pippard'', The Times, 27 September 2008

* Professor Ernst Sondheimer, ''Professor Sir Brian Pippard'', The Independent, Friday, 10 October 2008

* ''Professor Sir Brian Pippard, President of CUMS, 7 September 1920 – 21 September 2008''
Cambridge University Musical Society
(CUMS) News, 25 September 2008

. * ''Brian Pippard dies aged 88'', Varsity (Cambridge), Varsity, 2008

* ''Professor Pippard papers HF/LEEWW: 2000.611 2000'', The National Archives

Contents: Typewritten manuscript by Professor Sir Brian Pippard entitled 'Reminiscences of Wartime Radar Research 1941–1945', together with three papers published in The Journal of The Institution of Electrical Engineers in 1946.
interviewed by Alan Macfarlane 31 March 2008 (video)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pippard, Brian Alfred 1920 births 2008 deaths Fellows of the Royal Society British physicists Knights Bachelor Alumni of Clare College, Cambridge Fellows of Clare Hall, Cambridge People educated at Clifton College Presidents of the Institute of Physics Presidents of Clare Hall, Cambridge Cavendish Professors of Physics John Humphrey Plummer Professors