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, of which he was the first President.
Biography
Pippard was educated at
Clifton College and
Clare College, Cambridge, where he graduated with
MA (Cantab)
In the universities of Oxford, Cambridge, and Dublin, Bachelors of Arts are promoted to the degree of Master of Arts or Master in Arts (MA) on application after six or seven years' seniority as members of the university (including years as an un ...
and PhD degrees. After working as a scientific officer in
radar 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 surfaces in metals by establishing the shape of the Fermi surface of
copper through measuring the reflection and absorption of microwave electromagnetic radiation (see the
anomalous skin effect
Anomaly may refer to:
Science
Natural
*Anomaly (natural sciences)
** Atmospheric anomaly
**Geophysical anomaly
Medical
* Congenital anomaly (birth defect), a disorder present at birth
** Physical anomaly, a deformation of an anatomical structu ...
). He also introduced the notion of
coherence length in
superconductors in his proposal for the non-local generalisation of the
London equations concerning
electrodynamics in
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
In fluid dynamics, a vortex ( : vortices or vortexes) is a reg ...
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 current through a conductor between two points is directly proportional to the voltage across the two points. Introducing the constant of proportionality, the resistance, one arrives at the usual mathematical equat ...
) can be deduced within the framework of the
BCS (
Bardeen Bardeen may refer to:
*Charles Russell Bardeen (1871–1935), American anatomist, first dean of the medical school of the University of Wisconsin-Madison
*Charles V. Bardeen (1850–1903), American jurist
*Charles William Bardeen (1847–1924), Ame ...
,
Cooper
Cooper, Cooper's, Coopers and similar may refer to:
* Cooper (profession), a maker of wooden casks and other staved vessels
Arts and entertainment
* Cooper (producers), alias of Dutch producers Klubbheads
* Cooper (video game character), in ' ...
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 is also a co-author of 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 PHD or PhD may refer to:
* Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), an academic qualification
Entertainment
* '' PhD: Phantasy Degree'', a Korean comic series
* ''Piled Higher and Deeper'', a web comic
* Ph.D. (band), a 1980s British group
** Ph.D. (Ph.D. albu ...
in Physics in 1964) who in 1973 received the
Nobel Prize in Physics (together with
Leo Esaki and
Ivar Giaever) for his discovery of what is known as the
Josephson effect.
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