Richard Buckingham
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Richard Arthur Buckingham FBCS
FRSA The Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce, commonly known as the Royal Society of Arts (RSA), is a learned society that champions innovation and progress across a multitude of sectors by fostering creativity, s ...
(17 July 1911 – 13 August 1994) was an English
particle physicist Particle physics or high-energy physics is the study of fundamental particles and fundamental interaction, forces that constitute matter and radiation. The field also studies combinations of elementary particles up to the scale of protons and ...
,
mathematician A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, mathematical structure, structure, space, Mathematica ...
and
computer scientist A computer scientist is a scientist who specializes in the academic study of computer science. Computer scientists typically work on the theoretical side of computation. Although computer scientists can also focus their work and research on ...
long on the staff of the
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. He was also a
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of the
British Computer Society image:Maurice Vincent Wilkes 1980 (3).jpg, Sir Maurice Wilkes served as the first President of BCS in 1957. The British Computer Society (BCS), branded BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT, since 2009, is a professional body and a learned ...
and of the
Royal Society of Arts The Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce, commonly known as the Royal Society of Arts (RSA), is a learned society that champions innovation and progress across a multitude of sectors by fostering creativity, s ...
and chaired the Technical Committee for Education (TC3) of the
International Federation for Information Processing The International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP) is a global organisation for researchers and professionals working in the field of computing to conduct research, develop standards and promote information sharing. Established in 19 ...
. He was also the originator of the Buckingham potential formula.


Early life

Buckingham was the son of George Herbert Buckingham, by his marriage to Alice Mary Watson King. He was educated at Gresham's School, Holt, and
St John's College, Cambridge St John's College, formally the College of St John the Evangelist in the University of Cambridge, is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge, founded by the House of Tudor, Tudor matriarch L ...
(BA 1935, PhD 1937). His thesis on "Some problems arising from the interactions of atoms with atoms, electrons and radiation" was done under
Ralph H. Fowler Sir Ralph Howard Fowler (17 January 1889 – 28 July 1944) was an English physicist, physical chemist, and astronomer. Education Ralph H. Fowler was born at Roydon, Essex, Roydon, Essex, on 17 January 1889 to Howard Fowler, from Burnham-on-Sea, ...
.'BUCKINGHAM, Prof. Richard Arthur', in ''
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'' (London: A & C Black)
online edition
by
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, December 2012, accessed 18 January 2014


Career

After Cambridge, Buckingham's first academic post was at Queen's University, Belfast, where he was an assistant lecturer in Mathematical Physics from 1935 to 1938. In 1938 he published a paper titled 'The classical equation of state of gaseous Helium, Neon and Argon', which proposed a formula which became known as the Buckingham potential.R. A. Buckingham, 'The classical equation of state of gaseous Helium, Neon and Argon', in ''Proceedings of the Royal Society of London'', Series A, Mathematical and Physical Sciences, 168 (1938); pp. 264-283 The same year, he took up a new post as Senior 1851 Exhibitioner at
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 ...
, before serving in the
Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...
's Admiralty Research Laboratory, Teddington, and in the Mine Design Department at
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, from 1940 to 1945. After the
Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, he became an academic of
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 ...
, where he was a lecturer in Mathematics (1945–1950), a lecturer in Physics (1950–1951), and a Reader in Physics (1951–1957). From 1957 to 1973 he was Director of the University of London's Computer Unit, which during his tenure was renamed as the Institute of Computer Science. In 1962 the
International Federation for Information Processing The International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP) is a global organisation for researchers and professionals working in the field of computing to conduct research, develop standards and promote information sharing. Established in 19 ...
created a new Technical Committee for Education called TC3, the first ever international body dealing with computing and education, and in 1963 Buckingham was appointed to chair it. He commented "It was inevitable that education should come to the fore early in the development of IFIP". The first meeting took place in February 1964, in
Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
.John Impagliazzo, ''History of Computing and Education 2 (HCE2): IFIP 19th World Computer Congress, WG 9.7, TC 9: History of Computing, Proceedings of the Second Conference on the History of Computing and Education, August 21–24, Santiago, Chile'' (2006)
p. 8
/ref> In 1963 Buckingham was appointed as Professor of Computing Science, and in 1974 as Professor of Computer Education, at Birkbeck College, London. On his retirement in 1978 he received the title of Professor Emeritus.


Private life

In 1939 Buckingham married Christina O'Brien, and they had one son and two daughters. He died on 13 August 1994 in
West Sussex West Sussex is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Surrey to the north, East Sussex to the east, the English Channel to the south, and Hampshire to the west. The largest settlement is Cr ...
.


Selected publications

*''The Low-temperature Properties of Gaseous Helium: 2'', 1941 *''Numerical Methods'' (Pitman), 1957 *''Information Systems Education'', 1987 *Papers in ''Proceedings of the Royal Society'', ''Proceedings of the Physical Society'', ''Journal of Chemical Physics'', ''Computer Journal'', and others.


Notes


External links


Richard A. Buckingham
at www.genealogy.math.ndsu.nodak.edu {{DEFAULTSORT:Buckingham, Richard Arthur 1911 births 1994 deaths Academics of Birkbeck, University of London Academics of Queen's University Belfast Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge British computer scientists People educated at Gresham's School