Geoffrey Donald Sims OBE,

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 ...

(13 December 1926 – 5 August 2017) was a British physicist who served as Vice-Chancellor of the

University of Sheffield , mottoeng = To discover the causes of things , established = – University of SheffieldPredecessor institutions: – Sheffield Medical School – Firth College – Sheffield Technical School – University College of Sheffield , type = Pu ...

from 1974 to 1991.

Life

Sims was born 13 December 1926 in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

. He studied at

Imperial College, London Imperial College London (legally Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine) is a public research university in London, United Kingdom. Its history began with Prince Albert, consort of Queen Victoria, who developed his vision for a cu ...

, gaining a BSc in

physics Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which r ...

in 1947 and in

mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...

in 1948; an MSc in mathematics in 1950 and a PhD in physics in 1954.''IEEE Transactions on Education'', March 1968 page 83 He worked for

General Electric Company The General Electric Company (GEC) was a major British industrial conglomerate involved in consumer and defence electronics, communications, and engineering. The company was founded in 1886, was Britain's largest private employer with over 250 ...

from 1948 to 1954 then the

Atomic Energy Authority The United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority is a UK government research organisation responsible for the development of fusion energy. It is an executive non-departmental public body of the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy ( ...

until 1956 when he joined the academic staff of the Department of Electronics at the University of Southampton, becoming a professor and head of the Department of

Electronics The field of electronics is a branch of physics and electrical engineering that deals with the emission, behaviour and effects of electrons using electronic devices. Electronics uses active devices to control electron flow by amplification ...

at the same university, a position he held from 1963 to 1974.The University of Southampton: An Illustrated History, published 2002
History of ECS Sims died on 5 August 2017, at the age of 90.

Honours

Sims was awarded an OBE in 1971.Supplement to the London Gazette, 1 January 1971, p. 11 He was made a

Fellow A fellow is a concept whose exact meaning depends on context. In learned or professional societies, it refers to a privileged member who is specially elected in recognition of their work and achievements. Within the context of higher education ...

of the Academy of Engineering in 1980.Royal Academy of Engineering
Fellowship List He was awarded the honorary degree of LLD of the University of Sheffield in 1991.Sheffield Honorary Graduates
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References

1926 births 2017 deaths Academics of the University of Sheffield Academics of the University of Southampton Alumni of Imperial College London Officers of the Order of the British Empire Fellows of the Royal Academy of Engineering British physicists British electrical engineers Vice-Chancellors of the University of Sheffield {{UK-academic-stub