Sir Eric Albert Ash (31 January 1928 – 22 August 2021) was a British

electrical engineer Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems that use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...

, past

Rector of Imperial College The president of Imperial College London is the highest academic official of Imperial College London. The president is the chief executive and is elected by the council of the college and chairman of the senate. The position is currently held by ...

and President of IEE, UK. He was elected an international member of the

National Academy of Engineering The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) is an American Nonprofit organization, nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. It is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM), along with the National Academ ...

in 2001 for innovations in optics and acoustics and for leadership in education.

Early life and education

Eric Ash was born Ulrich Asch in Berlin, the son of Dorothea Cecily (Schwarz) and Walter J. Asch, a Jewish lawyer. The family emigrated to England in 1938 to escape

Nazism Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During Hitler's rise to power, it was fre ...

. He was educated at the independent

University College School University College School, also known as UCS, is a private day school in Frognal, Hampstead, London, England. The school was founded in 1830 by University College London and inherited many of that institution's progressive and secular views. ...

, and at 17 won a scholarship to

Imperial College London Imperial College London, also known as Imperial, is a Public university, public research university in London, England. Its history began with Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Prince Albert, husband of Queen Victoria, who envisioned a Al ...

. After graduating in electrical engineering, he continued his studies with doctoral research. His

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 ...

supervisor was

Dennis Gabor Dennis Gabor ( ; ; 5 June 1900 – 9 February 1979) was a Hungarian-British physicist who received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1971 for his invention of holography. He obtained British citizenship in 1946 and spent most of his life in Engla ...

, a

Nobel Prize The Nobel Prizes ( ; ; ) are awards administered by the Nobel Foundation and granted in accordance with the principle of "for the greatest benefit to humankind". The prizes were first awarded in 1901, marking the fifth anniversary of Alfred N ...

-winning physicist, and his thesis was published as ''Electron Interaction Effects'' (1952). He worked on microwave tubes as a

Fulbright scholar The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States cultural exchange programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the peopl ...

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

for two years, before returning to England to continue this work at the Standard Telecommunications Laboratory in London.

Career and research

Ash joined th
Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering at University College
in 1963, became a full professor in 1967. He was appointed Head of Department, and holder of the

Pender Chair The Pender Chair is the post that is generally held by the head of the Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering of University College London. John Pender (pictured in the caricature on the right), the founder of Cable and Wireless, ...

, in 1980. He was elected a

Fellow A fellow is a title and form of address for distinguished, learned, or skilled individuals in academia, medicine, research, and industry. The exact meaning of the term differs in each field. In learned society, learned or professional society, p ...

of the

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

on 17 March 1977, and was awarded its Clifford Paterson medal shortly afterwards. He was elected a

of the

Royal Academy of Engineering The Royal Academy of Engineering (RAEng) is the United Kingdom's national academy of engineering. The Academy was founded in June 1976 as the Fellowship of Engineering with support from Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, who became the first senio ...

in 1978. He worked on problems in physical electronics, ultrasonic signal processing and imaging. He won the

Marconi Prize The Marconi Prize is an annual award recognizing achievements and advancements made in field of communications (radio, mobile, wireless, telecommunications, data communications, networks, and Internet). The prize is awarded by the Marconi Society ...

in 1984 "for leadership in electronic technology, including

surface acoustic wave A surface acoustic wave (SAW) is an acoustic wave traveling along the surface of a material exhibiting elastic (solid mechanics), elasticity, with an amplitude that typically decays exponentially with depth into the material, such that they are c ...

devices and optical fibre communications". He won the Royal Society

Royal Medal The Royal Medal, also known as The Queen's Medal and The King's Medal (depending on the gender of the monarch at the time of the award), is a silver-gilt medal, of which three are awarded each year by the Royal Society. Two are given for "the mo ...

in 1986, in "recognition of his outstanding researches on

acoustic microscopy Acoustic microscopy is microscopy that employs very high or ultra high frequency ultrasound. Acoustic microscopes operate non-destructively and penetrate most solid materials to make visible images of internal features, including defects such as c ...

leading to wholly new techniques and substantial improvements in resolution of acoustic microscopes". He also won the

Institution of Electrical Engineers The Institution of Electrical Engineers (IEE) was a British professional organisation of electronics, electrical, manufacturing, and information technology professionals, especially electrical engineers. It began in 1871 as the Society of Tel ...

Faraday Medal The Faraday Medal is a top international medal awarded by the UK Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) (previously called the Institution of Electrical Engineers (IEE)). As one of the world's most prestigious awards in engineering, it ...

. He was a Senior Member and Life Fellow of the

Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is an American 501(c)(3) public charity professional organization for electrical engineering, electronics engineering, and other related disciplines. The IEEE has a corporate office ...

(an organisation based in the United States that complements the IET) and a member of th
Academia Europea
Ash became rector of Imperial College in 1985. He sat on the board of

British Telecom BT Group plc (formerly British Telecom) is a British Multinational corporation, multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered in London, England. It has operations in around 180 countries and is the largest provider of fixed-li ...

as a non-executive director from 1987 to 1993. In 1988, he was president of the IEE for one year. In 1987, he was made an honorary fellow of the Royal Microscopical Society. After retiring as Rector in 1993, Ash was an emeritus professor in the Department of Physics at University College, 1993–1998, working on

educational technology Educational technology (commonly abbreviated as edutech, or edtech) is the combined use of computer hardware, software, and educational theory and practice to facilitate learning and teaching. When referred to with its abbreviation, "EdTech" ...

. He acted as

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization. CEOs find roles in variou ...

of the

Student Loans Company Student Loans Company Limited (SLC) is an executive non-departmental public body company in the United Kingdom that provides student loans. It is owned by the UK Government's Department for Education (85%), the Scottish Government (5%), the We ...

1994–1996, remaining a non-executive director of the company until the end of August 2000. Ash was treasurer and vice-president of the Royal Society 1997–2002. He has also served as a trustee of a number of other organisations including the Afghan Educational Trust, the Dennis Rosen Memorial Trust, the

Royal Institution The Royal Institution of Great Britain (often the Royal Institution, Ri or RI) is an organisation for scientific education and research, based in the City of Westminster. It was founded in 1799 by the leading British scientists of the age, inc ...

, the

London Science Museum The Science Museum is a major museum on Exhibition Road in South Kensington, London. It was founded in 1857 and is one of the city's major tourist attractions, attracting 3.3 million visitors annually in 2019. Like other publicly funded ...

and the

Wolfson Foundation The Wolfson Foundation is a British registered charity that awards grants to support science and medicine, health, education and the arts and humanities. It was established in 1955 and re-registered in 2014. , the endowment of the Wolfson Fo ...

. He is a member of the Advisory Council of the

Campaign for Science and Engineering The Campaign for Science and Engineering (CaSE) is a non-profit organisation that is the UK's leading independent advocate for science and engineering. It focuses on arguing for more research funding, promoting a high-tech and knowledge-based e ...

and an international member of the

. In 2017, he was elected an Honorary Fellow of the Institute of Physics, UK.

Death

On 22 August 2021, Sir Eric Ash peacefully died at home at the age of 93.

References

External links

Includes a short biographyInterviewed at the Imperial College tv studio in May, 2000
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ash, Eric 1928 births 2021 deaths Academics of University College London Fellows of the Royal Society Fellows of the Royal Academy of Engineering Fellows of the Institution of Engineering and Technology Members of the United States National Academy of Engineering Foreign members of the Russian Academy of Sciences British electrical engineers Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Knights Bachelor Alumni of Imperial College London Rectors of Imperial College London People educated at University College School Royal Medal winners People associated with the Science Museum, London Engineers from Berlin BT Group people Jewish emigrants from Nazi Germany to the United Kingdom