Peter John Bell Clarricoats (6 April 1932 – 17 January 2020) was a British engineer who was

Professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other tertiary education, post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin ...

Electronic Engineering Electronic engineering is a sub-discipline of electrical engineering that emerged in the early 20th century and is distinguished by the additional use of active components such as semiconductor devices to amplify and control electric current flo ...

Queen Mary, University of London Queen Mary University of London (QMUL, or informally QM, and formerly Queen Mary and Westfield College) is a public research university in Mile End, East London, England. It is a member institution of the federal University of London. Today, ...

Early life and education

Clarricoats was born in 1932 in

Southgate, London Southgate is a suburban area of north London, England, in the London Borough of Enfield, north of Charing Cross. History Southgate was originally the south gate of Enfield Chase, the King's hunting grounds. This is reflected in the street n ...

, the youngest of the three children of John and Cecilia Clarricoats. His father was Secretary of the Radio Society of Great Britain. He was educated at

Minchenden Grammar School Minchenden School was a mixed secondary school situated in Southgate, North London, established in 1919 with 90 pupils. It merged with Arnos School in 1984. History The school was established in 1919 in Tottenhall Road as a mixed secondary s ...

and

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 ...

. He graduated BSc in 1953 and received 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 ...

from the University of London in 1958, with a thesis entitled "Properties of waveguides containing ferrites with special reference to waveguides of circular cross-section".

Academic career

Clarricoats began his academic career in 1959 as a lecturer at Queen’s University Belfast, followed by a move in 1961 to the

University of Sheffield The University of Sheffield (informally Sheffield University or TUOS) is a public university, public research university in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. Its history traces back to the foundation of Sheffield Medical School in 1828, Fir ...

. He was appointed as a professor at the

University of Leeds The University of Leeds is a public research university in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It was established in 1874 as the Yorkshire College of Science. In 1884, it merged with the Leeds School of Medicine (established 1831) and was renamed Y ...

in 1963, which made him the youngest professor in his field at the time. He was then Professor of Electronic Engineering at

from 1968 to 1997. He was head of the Department of Electronic Engineering between 1979 and 1995 and served as Dean of Engineering between 1977 and 1980. Clarricoats was vice-president of 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 ...

, from 1989 to 1991. He was vice-president and treasurer of URSI (the International Union of Radio Science) from 1993 to 1999. From 1995 to 1997 he was a director of

Filtronic Filtronic is a UK public limited company (PLC) that is AIM-listed on the London Stock Exchange (FTC.L). It is a designer and manufacturer of RF, microwave, and millimeter-wave (mmWave) components and subsystems for applications in telecommunicat ...

plc, and in 1998 became chair of the Technology Advisory board of Filtronic.

Honours

Clarricoats was appointed 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 ...

at 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 1983. He was elected a

Fellow of the Royal Society Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the Fellows of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural science, natural knowledge, incl ...

(FRS) in 1990 and appointed

Commander of the Order of the British Empire 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 ...

(CBE) for "services to the

Ministry of Defence A ministry of defence or defense (see American and British English spelling differences#-ce.2C -se, spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is the part of a government responsible for matters of defence and Mi ...

" in the

1996 Birthday Honours Queen's Birthday Honours are announced on or around the date of the Queen's Official Birthday in Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. The dates vary, both from year to year and from country to country. All are published in suppl ...

. In September 2015 Clarricoats was awarded the

Sir Frank Whittle Air Commodore Sir Frank Whittle, (1 June 1907 – 8 August 1996) was an English engineer, inventor and Royal Air Force (RAF) air officer. He is credited with co-creating the turbojet engine. A patent was submitted by Maxime Guillaume in 1921 fo ...

medal of the

, one of the academy's highest accolades.

Death

Clarricoats died on 17 January 2020 after a short illness at the age of 87.IET, Professor Peter Clarricoats CBE FREng FRS FIEEE HonFIET, April 1932 – January 2020, published 4 February 2020
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Works

*''Microwave Ferrites'', Wiley, 1961 * *'' Microwave Horns and Feeds'' (1994)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Clarricoats, Peter 1932 births 2020 deaths British electronics engineers Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Fellows of the Royal Society Fellows of the Royal Academy of Engineering Alumni of Imperial College London People from Southgate, London Academics of Queen's University Belfast Academics of the University of Sheffield Academics of the University of Leeds Academics of Queen Mary University of London