Mark Sheard Child FRS (born 17 August 1937) is a British

chemist A chemist (from Greek ''chēm(ía)'' alchemy; replacing ''chymist'' from Medieval Latin ''alchemist'') is a graduated scientist trained in the study of chemistry, or an officially enrolled student in the field. Chemists study the composition of ...

, and Emeritus Fellow of

St Edmund Hall, Oxford St Edmund Hall (also known as The Hall and Teddy Hall) is a constituent college of the University of Oxford. The college claims to be "the oldest surviving academic society to house and educate undergraduates in any university" and was the las ...

Education

Child attended

Pocklington School Pocklington School is a private day and boarding school in Pocklington, East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It was founded in 1514 by John Dolman. The school is situated in of land, on the outskirts of the small market town, from York and f ...

from 1947 to 1955. He earned his

Doctor of Philosophy 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 Postgraduate education, graduate study and original resear ...

degree from the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

in 1963 with a thesis on ''The vibrational spectra of electronically degenerate molecules''.

Research

Child's research interests include semiclassical mechanics, Molecular

collision theory Collision theory is a principle of chemistry used to predict the rates of chemical reactions. It states that when suitable particles of the Reagent, reactant hit each other with the correct orientation, only a certain amount of collisions result ...

Rydberg state The Rydberg states of an atom or molecule are electronically excited states with energies that follow the Rydberg formula as they converge on an ionic state with an ionization energy. Although the Rydberg formula was developed to describe atomic e ...

s and Quantum Level Structures at a

Saddle point In mathematics, a saddle point or minimax point is a Point (geometry), point on the surface (mathematics), surface of the graph of a function where the slopes (derivatives) in orthogonal directions are all zero (a Critical point (mathematics), ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Child, Mark Sheard 1937 births Living people British chemists People educated at Pocklington School Alumni of Clare College, Cambridge Fellows of St Edmund Hall, Oxford Academics of the University of Oxford Fellows of the Royal Society