Leonard "Larry" Rotherham

CBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

FRS (31 August 1913 – 21 March 2001) was a British

metallurgist Metallurgy is a domain of materials science and engineering that studies the physical and chemical behavior of metallic elements, their inter-metallic compounds, and their mixtures, which are known as alloys. Metallurgy encompasses both the ...

and vice chancellor of the

University of Bath The University of Bath is a public research university in Bath, England. Bath received its royal charter in 1966 as Bath University of Technology, along with a number of other institutions following the Robbins Report. Like the University ...

. He led the team which investigated the

de Havilland Comet The de Havilland DH.106 Comet is the world's first commercial jet airliner. Developed and manufactured by de Havilland in the United Kingdom, the Comet 1 prototype first flew in 1949. It features an aerodynamically clean design with four ...

airliner crashes caused by metal fatigue around the windows. He was educated at Herbert Strutt School,

Belper Belper () is a town and civil parish in the local government district of Amber Valley in Derbyshire, England, located about north of Derby on the River Derwent. Along with Belper, the parish includes the village of Milford and the hamlets ...

and

University College London University College London (Trade name, branded as UCL) is a Public university, public research university in London, England. It is a Member institutions of the University of London, member institution of the Federal university, federal Uni ...

. He worked as a physicist at Brown Firth Research Laboratories on high melting point alloys. from 1935 until 1946 when he was appointed at head of the Metallurgy Department at the

RAE Farnborough The Royal Aircraft Establishment (RAE) was a British research establishment, known by several different names during its history, that eventually came under the aegis of the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD), before finally losing its identity in mer ...

. He remained there until 1954 when he was appointed director of Research and Development of the

United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority The United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority is a UK government research organisation responsible for the development of fusion energy. It is an executive non-departmental public body of the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ). T ...

's Industrial Group based at Risley. He became the member for Research on the

CEGB The Central Electricity Generating Board (CEGB) was responsible for electricity generation, transmission and bulk sales in England and Wales from 1958 until privatisation of the electricity industry in the 1990s. It was established on 1 Janua ...

in 1958, a role he remained in until 1969 when he was appointed vice chancellor of the University of Bath until his retirement in 1976. Following his retirement he became a governor of

Imperial College Imperial College London, also known as Imperial, is a public research university in London, England. Its history began with Prince Albert, husband of Queen Victoria, who envisioned a cultural district in South Kensington that included museums ...

, London and a director of Chemring plc. He was appointed a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1963 and appointed a

in 1970. He was awarded an Honorary Degree (Doctor of Science) by the

in 1976. He married Nora Thompson in 1937 (and who died in 1991) and they had one son and two daughters.

References

1913 births 2001 deaths Fellows of the Royal Society Alumni of University College London Commanders of the Order of the British Empire English metallurgists People educated at the Herbert Strutt School Vice-chancellors of the University of Bath People from Sutton-in-Ashfield {{UK-scientist-stub