Brian Henderson (26 March 1936 – 20 August 2017) was an English

solid-state Solid state, or solid matter, is one of the four fundamental states of matter. Solid state may also refer to: Electronics * Solid-state electronics, circuits built of solid materials * Solid state ionics, study of ionic conductors and their use ...

spectroscopic Spectroscopy is the field of study that measures and interprets the electromagnetic spectra that result from the interaction between electromagnetic radiation and matter as a function of the wavelength or frequency of the radiation. Matter wav ...

physicist whose career included spells at

Atomic Energy Research Establishment The Atomic Energy Research Establishment (AERE) was the main Headquarters, centre for nuclear power, atomic energy research and development in the United Kingdom from 1946 to the 1990s. It was created, owned and funded by the British Governm ...

(AERE),

Keele University Keele University, officially known as the University of Keele, is a public research university in Keele, approximately from Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire, England. Founded in 1949 as the University College of North Staffordshire, Keele ...

Trinity College Dublin , name_Latin = Collegium Sanctae et Individuae Trinitatis Reginae Elizabethae juxta Dublin , motto = ''Perpetuis futuris temporibus duraturam'' (Latin) , motto_lang = la , motto_English = It will last i ...

(TCD), and the

University of Strathclyde The University of Strathclyde ( gd, Oilthigh Shrath Chluaidh) is a public research university located in Glasgow, Scotland. Founded in 1796 as the Andersonian Institute, it is Glasgow's second-oldest university, having received its royal chart ...

Life and career

Brian Henderson was born near

Doncaster Doncaster (, ) is a city in South Yorkshire, England. Named after the River Don, it is the administrative centre of the larger City of Doncaster. It is the second largest settlement in South Yorkshire after Sheffield. Doncaster is situated in ...

, and was educated at Maltby Grammar School, then in the

West Riding of Yorkshire The West Riding of Yorkshire is one of three historic subdivisions of Yorkshire, England. From 1889 to 1974 the administrative county County of York, West Riding (the area under the control of West Riding County Council), abbreviated County ...

. He attended the

University of Birmingham , mottoeng = Through efforts to heights , established = 1825 – Birmingham School of Medicine and Surgery1836 – Birmingham Royal School of Medicine and Surgery1843 – Queen's College1875 – Mason Science College1898 – Mason Univers ...

, obtaining his BSc (in physical

metallurgy Metallurgy is a domain of materials science and engineering that studies the physical and chemical behavior of metallic elements, their inter-metallic compounds, and their mixtures, which are known as alloys. Metallurgy encompasses both the sc ...

) in 1958 and PhD in 1960 with a thesis on "The Lattice Spacings of Alloys with Reference to Electronic Constitution".Professor Brian Henderson FRSE
The Royal Society of Edinburgh He became senior scientific officer at the Basic Ceramics Group at AERE (Harwell) in 1962, and joined the staff at Keele University in 1968, being promoted to Reader in Physics there in 1972. Upon the retirement of Nobel laureate

Ernest Walton Ernest Thomas Sinton Walton (6 October 1903 – 25 June 1995) was an Irish physicist and Nobel laureate. He is best known for his work with John Cockcroft to construct one of the earliest types of particle accelerator, the Cockcroft–Walton g ...

from TCD in 1974, Henderson moved to Ireland and became

Erasmus Smith's Professor of Natural and Experimental Philosophy Erasmus Smith's Professor of Natural and Experimental Philosophy at Trinity College Dublin is a chair in physics founded in 1724 and funded by the Erasmus Smith Trust, which was established by Erasmus Smith, a wealthy London merchant, who live ...

, a position he held for 10 years. TCD elected him a Fellow in 1976, and awarded him an honorary ScD in 1979. (In 1999, long after he had left TCD, he was awarded an honorary Fellowship there.) Henderson moved back to the UK in 1984, becoming Freeland Professor of Natural Philosophy at Strathclyde University in

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...

. He later served as Dean of Science and university vice-principal, but retired from there due to ill health in 1997. He had been 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 ...

in 1986. Henderson wrote over 200 papers, authored or co-authored 4 books, and had thirty PhD students. The

International Medical University The International Medical University (IMU) is a private, English language, health sciences university in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. It was established in 1992, and is active in research and teaching within medicine and healthcare with a strong int ...

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...

awarded him an honorary DSc in 2006.

Selected books

* ''Crystal-Field Engineering of Solid-State Laser Materials'', by Brian Henderson & Ralph H. Bartram (Cambridge University Press, 2005) *
Optical Spectroscopy of Inorganic Solids
', by Brian Henderson & George F. Imbusch (Clarendon, 1989)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Henderson, Brian Academics of Trinity College Dublin Alumni of Trinity College Dublin Fellows of Trinity College Dublin English mathematicians 1936 births 2017 deaths