Sir Peter Bernhard Hirsch

HonFRMS The Royal Microscopical Society (RMS) is a learned society for the promotion of microscopy. It was founded in 1839 as the Microscopical Society of London making it the oldest organisation of its kind in the world. In 1866, the Society gained it ...

FRS (born 16 January 1925) is a British metallurgist who has made fundamental contributions to the application of

transmission electron microscopy Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) is a microscopy technique in which a beam of electrons is transmitted through a specimen to form an image. The specimen is most often an ultrathin section less than 100 nm thick or a suspension on a g ...

to metals.

Biography

Hirsch was born in 16 January 1925; his parents divorced in 1934 and his father died two years later. Hirsch lived in Germany until 1939; he was one of hundreds of Jewish children that escaped Germany via the various ''

Kindertransport The ''Kindertransport'' (German for "children's transport") was an organised rescue effort of children from Nazi Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, total ...

'' missions that saved many such children from the impending dangers of World War II and

the Holocaust The Holocaust (), known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (), was the genocide of History of the Jews in Europe, European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy ...

. Hirsch attended Sloane Grammar School, Chelsea, and

St Catharine's College, Cambridge St Catharine's College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. Founded in 1473 as Katharine Hall, it adopted its current name in 1860. The college is nicknamed "Catz". The colle ...

. In 1946 he joined the

Crystallography Crystallography is the branch of science devoted to the study of molecular and crystalline structure and properties. The word ''crystallography'' is derived from the Ancient Greek word (; "clear ice, rock-crystal"), and (; "to write"). In J ...

Department of the

Cavendish Cavendish may refer to: People * The House of Cavendish, a British aristocratic family * Margaret Cavendish (1623–1673), British poet, philosopher, and scientist * Cavendish (author) (1831–1899), pen name of Henry Jones, English auth ...

to work for a PhD on work hardening in metals under W. H. Taylor and

Lawrence Bragg Sir William Lawrence Bragg (31 March 1890 – 1 July 1971) was an Australian-born British physicist who shared the 1915 Nobel Prize in Physics with his father William Henry Bragg "for their services in the analysis of crystal structure by m ...

. He subsequently carried out work, which is still cited, on the structure of

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other Chemical element, elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal i ...

. In the mid-1950s, he pioneered the application of

(TEM) to metals and developed in detail the theory needed to interpret such images. He was a Fellow of

Christ's College, Cambridge Christ's College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. The college includes the Master, the Fellows of the College, and about 450 undergraduate and 250 graduate students. The c ...

from 1960 to 1966 and was elected an Honorary Fellow of Christ's in 1978. In 1965, with

Howie Howie is a Scottish locational surname derived from a medieval estate in Ayrshire, southwest Scotland. While its ancient name is known as "The lands of How", its exact location is lost to time. The word "How", predating written history, appears t ...

Whelan The family name Whelan is an anglicisation of the Irish surname Ó Faoláin. The surname originates from the Middle Irish (plural ''Uí Faeláin'') the name of the 10th to 11th century ruling dynasty of the Déisi, a population group inhabitin ...

, Pashley and Nicholson, he published the text ''Electron microscopy of thin crystals''. The following year he moved to Oxford to take up the

Isaac Wolfson Sir Isaac Wolfson, 1st Baronet FRS (; 17 September 1897 – 20 June 1991) was a Scottish businessman and philanthropist. He was managing director of Great Universal Stores (G.U.S. or Gussies) 1932–1947 and chairman 1947–1987. He establish ...

Chair in Metallurgy, succeeding

William Hume-Rothery William Hume-Rothery (15 May 1899 – 27 September 1968) was an English metallurgist and materials scientist who studied the constitution of alloys. Early life and education Hume-Rothery was born the son of lawyer Joseph Hume-Rothery in Wor ...

. He held this post until his retirement in 1992, building up the Department of Metallurgy (now the Department of Materials) into a world-renowned centre. Among many other honours, he was awarded the 1983 Wolf Foundation Prize in physics. He was elected to the

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

in 1963 and knighted in 1975. Hirsch was elected a member of the

National Academy of Engineering The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) is an American Nonprofit organization, nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. It is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM), along with the National Academ ...

in 2001 for experimentally establishing the role of dislocations in plastic flow and of electron microscopy as a tool for materials research. He is also a fellow of

St Edmund Hall 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 last ...

, Oxford. His great-niece is the writer and broadcaster

Afua Hirsch Afua Hirsch Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, FRSL (born 1981) is a British writer and broadcaster. She has worked as a journalist for ''The Guardian'' newspaper, and was the Social Affairs and Education Editor for Sky News from 2014 un ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hirsch, Peter 1925 births Living people Alumni of Christ's College, Cambridge Alumni of St Catharine's College, Cambridge British metallurgists English people of German-Jewish descent Fellows of St Edmund Hall, Oxford Fellows of the Royal Microscopical Society Fellows of the Royal Society Foreign members of the Russian Academy of Sciences Isaac Wolfson Professors of Metallurgy Jewish British scientists Knights Bachelor Microscopists Recipients of the Lomonosov Gold Medal Royal Medal winners Wolf Prize in Physics laureates