James Edward Gordon (UK, 1913–1998) was one of the founders of materials science and

biomechanics Biomechanics is the study of the structure, function and motion of the mechanical aspects of biological systems, at any level from whole organisms to organs, cells and cell organelles, using the methods of mechanics. Biomechanics is a branch of ...

, and a well-known author of three books on structures and materials, which have been translated in many languages and are still widely used in schools and universities.

Biography

Gordon graduated in naval architecture at

Glasgow University , image = UofG Coat of Arms.png , image_size = 150px , caption = Coat of arms Flag , latin_name = Universitas Glasguensis , motto = la, Via, Veritas, Vita , ...

. During

World War II 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 opposin ...

he worked at the

Royal Aircraft Establishment The Royal Aircraft Establishment (RAE) was a British research establishment, known by several different names during its history, that eventually came under the aegis of the Ministry of Defence (United Kingdom), UK Ministry of Defence (MoD), bef ...

(RAE); here he studied

composite materials A composite material (also called a composition material or shortened to composite, which is the common name) is a material which is produced from two or more constituent materials. These constituent materials have notably dissimilar chemical or ...

, wooden aircraft, plastics and new materials of many types. He designed the rescue dinghies for most bomber aircraft used in the war, and studied the strength and behaviour of reinforcement fibres made of

glass Glass is a non-crystalline, often transparent, amorphous solid that has widespread practical, technological, and decorative use in, for example, window panes, tableware, and optics. Glass is most often formed by rapid cooling (quenching) of ...

carbon Carbon () is a chemical element with the symbol C and atomic number 6. It is nonmetallic and tetravalent In chemistry, the valence (US spelling) or valency (British spelling) of an element is the measure of its combining capacity with o ...

, boron and other materials. After the war he worked at

Tube Investments TI Group plc (formerly "Tube Investments") was a holding company for specialised engineering companies. It was based in Abingdon, Oxfordshire. It was registered as ''Tube Investments'' in 1919, combining the seamless steel tube businesses of Tu ...

(TI) at the Group Research Laboratory, Hinxton Hall, near Cambridge. From 1962 he was head of a new branch at the Explosives Research and Development Establishment (ERDE), Waltham Abbey dealing with completely new structural materials. Some of his discoveries are still applied in the construction of fibre-reinforced parts for aircraft and rockets.

Titles and awards

*Industrial Fellow Commoner at

Churchill College, Cambridge Churchill College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. It has a primary focus on science, engineering and technology, but still retains a strong interest in the arts and humanities. In 1958, a trust was establish ...

. *Professor of Materials Technology at the

University of Reading The University of Reading is a public university in Reading, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1892 as University College, Reading, a University of Oxford extension college. The institution received the power to grant its own degrees in 192 ...

. *British Silver Medal of the

Royal Aeronautical Society The Royal Aeronautical Society, also known as the RAeS, is a British multi-disciplinary professional institution dedicated to the global aerospace community. Founded in 1866, it is the oldest aeronautical society in the world. Members, Fellows ...

* Griffith Medal of the Materials Science Club

Works

*''The New Science of Strong Materials or Why You Don't Fall Through the Floor'' - Pelican Books, 1968 - *''Structures: Or Why Things Don't Fall Down'' - Pelican Books, 1978

*''The Science of Structures and Materials'' - Scientific American Library, 1988 -

References

J.E.Gordon's profile
on Penguin site.

* ttps://books.google.com/books?id=_BnfnEMifSoC&lpg=PA383&ots=O-hW7snIrE&dq=jim%20gordon%20farnborough&pg=PA383#v=onepage&q=gordon&f=false Article - Nature as an Engineer"New Scientist 17 Feb 1972 on Googlebooks {{DEFAULTSORT:Gordon, J. E. British materials scientists 1998 deaths 1913 births Alumni of the University of Glasgow