Arnold Hugh William Beck (7 August 1916 – 11 October 1997) was a British scientist and electrical engineer, a specialist in plasma and

microwaves Microwave is a form of electromagnetic radiation with wavelengths ranging from about one meter to one millimeter corresponding to frequencies between 300 MHz and 300 GHz respectively. Different sources define different frequency rang ...

, Professor of Engineering in the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a public collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209 and granted a royal charter by Henry III in 1231, Cambridge is the world's third oldest surviving university and one of its most pr ...

Early life and education

The younger son of Major Hugh Beck and Diana L. Beck, the young Beck was educated at Gresham's School, Holt, and

University College, London , mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £143 million (2020) , budget = � ...

, where he graduated ''BSc Eng''. His old college elected him to a Fellowship in 1979.'BECK, Prof. Arnold Hugh William', in '' Who's Who 1997'' (London: A. & C. Black, 1997)

Career

In 1937, after graduation, Beck became a research engineer with Henry Hughes & Sons, remaining with the firm until 1941. Then, with the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

in progress, he was seconded to the Admiralty Signal Establishment until 1945. From 1947 he was an engineer with

Standard Telephones and Cables Standard Telephones and Cables Ltd (later STC plc) was a British manufacturer of telephone, telegraph, radio, telecommunications, and related equipment. During its history, STC invented and developed several groundbreaking new technologies incl ...

, ultimately as head of the Valve Research Division. In 1958 he was appointed a Lecturer in Electrical Engineering at Cambridge, where he led a group researching new ways to generate

very high frequency Very high frequency (VHF) is the ITU designation for the range of radio frequency electromagnetic waves ( radio waves) from 30 to 300 megahertz (MHz), with corresponding wavelengths of ten meters to one meter. Frequencies immediately below VH ...

radio waves Radio waves are a type of electromagnetic radiation with the longest wavelengths in the electromagnetic spectrum, typically with frequencies of 300 gigahertz ( GHz) and below. At 300 GHz, the corresponding wavelength is 1 mm (s ...

.'CONTRIBUTORS: Arnold Hugh William Beck' in ''

New Scientist ''New Scientist'' is a magazine covering all aspects of science and technology. Based in London, it publishes weekly English-language editions in the United Kingdom, the United States and Australia. An editorially separate organisation publish ...

'', issue dated 19 September 1963 (Vol. 19, no. 357)
627
/ref> In 1964 he was promoted to Reader and in 1966 was elected to one of the three Professorships of Engineering established that year. He was also Head of the University's Electrical Division from 1971 to 1981, and when he retired in 1983 he was given the title of Emeritus Professor and was elected a Life Fellow of Corpus Christi, where he had been a Fellow since 1962.

Personal life

In 1947, Beck married Monica, a daughter of Samuel K Ratcliffe, they had no children, but raised her son

Nicolas Walter Nicolas Hardy Walter (22 November 1934 – 7 March 2000) was a British anarchist and atheist writer, speaker and activist. He was a member of the Committee of 100 and Spies for Peace, and wrote on topics of anarchism and humanism. Background ...

from her previous marriage to

William Grey Walter William Grey Walter (February 19, 1910 – May 6, 1977) was an American-born British neurophysiologist, cybernetician and robotician. Early life and education Walter was born in Kansas City, Missouri, United States, on 19 February 1910, the ...

. In 1959, he was elected a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.

Publications

*''Velocity Modulated Thermionic Tubes'' (1948) *''Thermionic Valves'' (1953) *''Space-charge Waves'' (1958) *''Words and Waves'' (1967) *''Introduction to Physical Electronics'' (with H. Ahmed) (1968) *''Handbook of Vacuum Physics'', Vol. 2, Parts 5 and 6, 1968 *''Statistical Mechanics, Fluctuations and Noise'' (1976)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Beck, Arnold Hugh William 1916 births 1997 deaths Alumni of University College London Fellows of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge People educated at Gresham's School Professors of engineering (Cambridge) British electrical engineers Fellow Members of the IEEE Admiralty personnel of World War II

Early life and education

Career

Personal life

Publications

See also

References