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Neutron-science pioneer John Enderby dies aged 90

06 Aug 2021 Hamish Johnston
John Enderby
John Enderby: 1931–2021. (Courtesy: IOP Publishing)

The British physicist John Enderby has died aged 90. He is best known scientifically for his development of new techniques using neutrons to study the structure of liquids. Knighted for his services to science and technology in 2004, Enderby had a long association with IOP Publishing in Bristol, where he served for many years as scientific adviser. He was also president of the Institute of Physics (IOP).

Enderby was born in Lincolnshire on 16 January 1931. After doing his national service in the Middle East, he earned a first-class honours degree in physics from Birkbeck College, University of London in 1957. He remained at Birkbeck to do a PhD on the properties of liquid metals under the supervision of Norman Cusack.

He then embarked on an academic career, working at the universities of Huddersfield, Sheffield and Leicester, before accepting a chair at the University of Bristol in 1976, where he was head of department for more than a decade. In 1985–1988 Enderby took leave from Bristol to serve as the British directeur-adjoint of the Institut Laue-Langevin in Grenoble, France – which is a leading international centre for neutron science. He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1985 and was an honorary fellow of the IOP.

Alan Soper, who did a PhD with Enderby at Leicester, described him as a “constant source of inspiration and support”. Soper first encountered his future supervisor as an undergraduate. “I was intrigued by his classes,” recalls Soper, “He mostly taught from memory, with little reference to notes, and his lectures usually ended with a question – making it clear that what we had been told up to that point was incomplete and that there was still more to be learned.”

Significant achievement in liquid-state physics

Soper highlights Enderby’s collaboration in the 1960s with Peter Egelstaff, then at AERE Harwell, that used innovative neutron-scattering techniques to demonstrate the validity of the Faber–Ziman theory of liquid binary alloys. He describes this work as “one of the most significant achievements in liquid-state physics that occurred in the 20th century”.

Enderby also had a deep commitment to the UK physics community. “John Enderby has been involved with the IOP, IOP Publishing and the original Physical Society for nearly 60 years,” says Antonia Seymour, chief executive of IOP Publishing. “His first paper was submitted to the Proceedings of the Physical Society in 1959 and he went on to become hugely interested in scholarly publishing, working closely with IOP Publishing staff as a reviewer, an editor and more recently in a scientific advisory capacity. He has been a great friend to IOP Publishing: always supportive and encouraging, with a plethora of ideas for how we might expand our books and journals portfolio.”

Seymour adds, “He will be hugely missed, and IOP Publishing owes Sir John a debt of gratitude for his prodigious contributions to our publishing success over many years.”

He is survived by his wife Susan and four children.

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