Sir Charles William Oatley OBE, FRS

FREng Fellowship of the Royal Academy of Engineering (FREng) is an award and Scholarship, fellowship for engineers who are recognised by the Royal Academy of Engineering as being the best and brightest engineers, inventors and technologists in the UK a ...

(14 February 1904 – 11 March 1996) was Professor of Electrical Engineering,

University of Cambridge , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

, 1960–1971, and developer of one of the first commercial scanning electron microscopes. He was also a founder member of the

Royal Academy of Engineering The Royal Academy of Engineering (RAEng) is the United Kingdom's national academy of engineering. The Academy was founded in June 1976 as the Fellowship of Engineering with support from Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, who became the first senior ...

Biography

He was born in

Frome Frome ( ) is a town and civil parish in eastern Somerset, England. The town is built on uneven high ground at the eastern end of the Mendip Hills, and centres on the River Frome. The town, about south of Bath, is the largest in the Mendip d ...

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, 14 February 1904. A plaque has been placed on the house at the junction of Badcox Parade and Catherine Hill. He was educated at

Bedford Modern School Bedford Modern School (often called BMS) is a Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference independent school in Bedford, England. The school has its origins in Bedford Charity, The Harpur Trust, born from the financial endowment, endowments le ...

and

St. John's College, Cambridge St John's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge founded by the Tudor matriarch Lady Margaret Beaufort. In constitutional terms, the college is a charitable corporation established by a charter dated 9 April 1511. The ...

. He lectured at

King's College London King's College London (informally King's or KCL) is a public research university located in London, England. King's was established by royal charter in 1829 under the patronage of King George IV and the Duke of Wellington. In 1836, King's ...

for 12 years, until the war. He was a director of the

English Electric Valve Company English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national i ...

from 1966 to 1985. In 1969 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 ...

. Oatley also received an

Honorary Doctorate An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or ''ad hon ...

from

Heriot-Watt University Heriot-Watt University ( gd, Oilthigh Heriot-Watt) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. It was established in 1821 as the School of Arts of Edinburgh, the world's first mechanics' institute, and subsequently granted univ ...

in 1974. In that same year, he was

knight A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state (including the Pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church or the country, especially in a military capacity. Knighthood finds origins in the Gr ...

ed. He received an Honorary Degree (Doctor of Science) from the

University of Bath (Virgil, Georgics II) , mottoeng = Learn the culture proper to each after its kind , established = 1886 (Merchant Venturers Technical College) 1960 (Bristol College of Science and Technology) 1966 (Bath University of Technology) 1971 (univ ...

in 1977. He retired from the

in 1985. He was awarded the

Howard N. Potts Medal The Howard N. Potts Medal was one of The Franklin Institute Awards for science and engineering award presented by the Franklin Institute of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is named for Howard N. Potts. The first Howard N. Potts Medal was awarded in ...

in 1989. He died on 11 March 1996.

Graduate students

Oatley and the graduate students he supervised made substantial contributions, particularly to the development of the scanning electron microscope (SEM). His students included: *

Thomas Everhart Thomas Eugene Everhart FREng (born February 15, 1932, Kansas City, Missouri) is an American educator and physicist. His area of expertise is the physics of electron beams. Together with Richard F. M. Thornley he designed the Everhart–Thornley ...

, former President of

Caltech The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech or CIT)The university itself only spells its short form as "Caltech"; the institution considers other spellings such a"Cal Tech" and "CalTech" incorrect. The institute is also occasional ...

Alec Broers Alec Nigel Broers, Baron Broers, (born 17 September 1938) is a British electrical engineering, electrical engineer. In 1994 Broers was elected an international member of the National Academy of Engineering for contributions to electronic beam ...

, former Vice-Chancellor of the

and former president of the

. *

Haroon Ahmed Haroon Ahmed FREng (born 2 March 1936), is a British Pakistanis, British Pakistani scientist in specialising the fields of microelectronics and electrical engineering. He is Emeritus Professor of Microelectronics at the Cavendish Laboratory, the ...

, former Master of

Corpus Christi College, Cambridge Corpus Christi College (full name: "The College of Corpus Christi and the Blessed Virgin Mary", often shortened to "Corpus"), is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. From the late 14th century through to the early 19th century ...

and Professor of

Microelectronics Microelectronics is a subfield of electronics. As the name suggests, microelectronics relates to the study and manufacture (or microfabrication) of very small electronic designs and components. Usually, but not always, this means micrometre-sc ...

References

External links

Charles Oatley: Pioneer of Scanning Electron MicroscopyThe Papers of Sir Charles Oatley
held at

Churchill Archives Centre The Churchill Archives Centre (CAC) at Churchill College at the University of Cambridge is one of the largest repositories in the United Kingdom for the preservation and study of modern personal papers. It is best known for housing the papers of ...

accessed 2 July 2008 * {{DEFAULTSORT:Oatley, Charles 1904 births 1996 deaths People educated at Bedford Modern School Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge Academics of King's College London British physicists British electronics engineers Fellows of Trinity College, Cambridge Fellows of the Royal Academy of Engineering Fellows of the Royal Society Knights Bachelor Officers of the Order of the British Empire Royal Medal winners People from Frome Howard N. Potts Medal recipients Engineering professors at the University of Cambridge