Peter Nicholas Pusey (born 30 December 1942) is a British physicist. He is an Emeritus Professor of Physics at the
School of Physics and Astronomy of the
University of Edinburgh
The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted a royal charter by King James VI in 15 ...
.
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University of Edinburgh, retrieved 2016-03-12.
Research
Pusey is a pioneer of
dynamic light scattering
Dynamic light scattering (DLS) is a technique in physics that can be used to determine the size distribution profile of small particles in suspension or polymers in solution. In the scope of DLS, temporal fluctuations are usually analyzed using t ...
(DLS) and is known for elucidating the structure and dynamics of concentrated
colloidal suspension
A colloid is a mixture in which one substance consisting of microscopically dispersed insoluble particles is suspended throughout another substance. Some definitions specify that the particles must be dispersed in a liquid, while others exten ...
s. He contributed to the development, underlying theory and applications of DLS. He was among the first to apply photon correlation techniques and, with colleagues, developed the now standard method of
cumulant analysis for
particle sizing. His theory, with William van Megen, of DLS by
non-ergodic media resolved long-standing difficulties, allowing DLS studies of amorphous solid-like systems such as
polymer
A polymer (; Greek '' poly-'', "many" + ''-mer'', "part")
is a substance or material consisting of very large molecules called macromolecules, composed of many repeating subunits. Due to their broad spectrum of properties, both synthetic a ...
gel
A gel is a semi-solid that can have properties ranging from soft and weak to hard and tough. Gels are defined as a substantially dilute cross-linked system, which exhibits no flow when in the steady-state, although the liquid phase may still di ...
s and
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 ...
y colloidal suspensions.
With his work on the
Brownian motion
Brownian motion, or pedesis (from grc, πήδησις "leaping"), is the random motion of particles suspended in a medium (a liquid or a gas).
This pattern of motion typically consists of random fluctuations in a particle's position insi ...
s of strongly interacting particles, Pusey was one of the first to apply microscopic approaches to colloidal suspensions. His research exploited analogies and differences between concentrated suspensions of ''hard-sphere'' colloids and atomic materials, to investigate such fundamental phenomena as
crystallisation
Crystallization is the process by which solid forms, where the atoms or molecules are highly organized into a structure known as a crystal. Some ways by which crystals form are precipitating from a solution, freezing, or more rarely deposi ...
, the
glass transition
The glass–liquid transition, or glass transition, is the gradual and reversible transition in amorphous materials (or in amorphous regions within semicrystalline materials) from a hard and relatively brittle "glassy" state into a viscous or rubb ...
and the formation of ordered binary
superlattice
A superlattice is a periodic structure of layers of two (or more) materials. Typically, the thickness of one layer is several nanometers. It can also refer to a lower-dimensional structure such as an array of quantum dots or quantum wells.
Disc ...
s.
With
Eric Jakeman
Eric Jakeman (born 1939) is a British mathematical physicist specialising in the statistics and quantum statistics of waves. He is an Emeritus Professor at the University of Nottingham.
Education
Jakeman was educated at The Brunts School ...
, Pusey also introduced
K-distribution
In probability and statistics, the generalized K-distribution is a three-parameter family of continuous probability distributions.
The distribution arises by compounding two gamma distributions. In each case, a re-parametrization of the usual f ...
s; these have proved powerful in describing the statistical properties of, for example,
microwave
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 ran ...
s scattered by the sea surface and
laser
A laser is a device that emits light through a process of optical amplification based on the stimulated emission of electromagnetic radiation. The word "laser" is an acronym for "light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation". The fir ...
light propagating through the atmosphere.
Awards and honours
Pusey was elected a
Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 1996[ One or more of the preceding sentences may incorporate text from the royalsociety.org website where "all text published under the heading 'Biography' on Fellow profile pages is available under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License." ] and 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 the same year.
In 2005, he was awarded the
Rhodia Prize by the European Colloid and Interface Society for his ''Outstanding contributions in the experimental study of dynamically arrested (
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 ...
y)
particulate matter
Particulates – also known as atmospheric aerosol particles, atmospheric particulate matter, particulate matter (PM) or suspended particulate matter (SPM) – are microscopic particles of solid or liquid matter suspended in the air. The ter ...
, especially in relation to
hard sphere fluids with added
polymer
A polymer (; Greek '' poly-'', "many" + ''-mer'', "part")
is a substance or material consisting of very large molecules called macromolecules, composed of many repeating subunits. Due to their broad spectrum of properties, both synthetic a ...
''.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pusey, Peter
Living people
University of Pittsburgh alumni
Fellows of the Royal Society
Academics of the University of Edinburgh
1942 births