Alan James Duncan

FRSE Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE) is an award granted to individuals that the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland's national academy of science and letters, judged to be "eminently distinguished in their subject". This soci ...

FRSA The Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA), also known as the Royal Society of Arts, is a London-based organisation committed to finding practical solutions to social challenges. The RSA acronym is used m ...

(4 November 1938 – 9 July 1999) was a Scottish atomic physicist who created a metastable atomic hydrogen beam apparatus used to first observe the two-photon decay of metastable hydrogen and measure fundamental predictions of

quantum theory Quantum theory may refer to: Science *Quantum mechanics, a major field of physics *Old quantum theory, predating modern quantum mechanics * Quantum field theory, an area of quantum mechanics that includes: ** Quantum electrodynamics ** Quantum ...

. The

Science and Engineering Research Council The Science and Engineering Research Council (SERC) and its predecessor the Science Research Council (SRC) were the UK agencies in charge of publicly funded scientific and engineering research activities, including astronomy, biotechnology and bi ...

of UK placed him highly in their publication ''Highlights in Physics'' (1985)

Life

He was born on 4 November 1938 at Kingston near

North Berwick North Berwick (; gd, Bearaig a Tuath) is a seaside town A seaside resort is a town, village, or hotel that serves as a vacation resort and is located on a coast. Sometimes the concept includes an aspect of official accreditation based on th ...

. He was educated at North Berwick Primary and Secondary Schools. After a brief spell in the English educational system at South Shields and Newcastle he became disillusioned and returned to the Scottish system, gaining a place studying Natural Philosophy (physics) and Mathematics at

St Andrews University (Aien aristeuein) , motto_lang = grc , mottoeng = Ever to ExcelorEver to be the Best , established = , type = Public research university Ancient university , endowment ...

graduating BSc in 1961 and winning the university’s Neil Arnott Prize. In 1965 he went to the USA to undertake postgraduate studies, largely looking at plasma physics, at

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

where he gained a doctorate. In 1970 he began lecturing in Physics at the newly created

Stirling University The University of Stirling (, gd, Oilthigh Shruighlea (abbreviated as Stir or Shruiglea, in post-nominals) is a public university in Stirling, Scotland, founded by royal charter in 1967. It is located in the Central Belt of Scotland, built w ...

in central Scotland. He then joined Hans Kleinpoppen’s Atomic Physics Research Group. His final works included a collaboration with

Marlan Scully Marlan Orvil Scully (born August 3, 1939) is an American physicist best known for his work in theoretical quantum optics. He is a professor at Texas A&M University and Princeton University. Additionally, in 2012 he developed a lab at the Baylor ...

on two-photon radiation, and a project with Miles Padgett and

Wilson Sibbett Wilson Sibbett (born 1948) is a British physicist noted for his work on ultrashort pulse lasers and Streak cameras. He is the Wardlaw Professor of Physics at St Andrews University. Early life and education He was born in Portglenone in County ...

to create optical instruments to measure the

Orbital angular momentum of light The orbital angular momentum of light (OAM) is the component of angular momentum of a light beam that is dependent on the field spatial distribution, and not on the polarization. It can be further split into an internal and an external OAM. The in ...

. He also created a

Fourier transform A Fourier transform (FT) is a mathematical transform that decomposes functions into frequency components, which are represented by the output of the transform as a function of frequency. Most commonly functions of time or space are transformed, ...

spectrometer to measure atmospheric pollution, and an optical Profilometer to record surface profiles. The latter won joint first prize in the 1998 National Physics Laboratory Awards. In 1992 he was elected a Fellow of the

Royal Society of Edinburgh The Royal Society of Edinburgh is Scotland's national academy of science and letters. It is a registered charity that operates on a wholly independent and non-partisan basis and provides public benefit throughout Scotland. It was established i ...

. His proposers were H R Wilson, Hans Kleinpoppen, G V Marr, R J Roberts, J R Sargent,

and A J Forty. Only in 1998 did he receive a chair, becoming Professor of Experimental Physics at Stirling. He died suddenly whilst on holiday with his wife in

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

on 9 July 1999.

Family

He had one son, Robert Duncan, and one daughter, Fiona Duncan, by his wife Irene.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Duncan, Alan James 1938 births 1999 deaths Scottish physicists British nuclear physicists Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Alumni of the University of St Andrews Academics of the University of Stirling