Sir Eric Albert Ash (31 January 1928 – 22 August 2021) was a British

electrical engineer Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems which use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...

, past

Rector of Imperial College The President of Imperial College London is the highest academic official of Imperial College London. The President, formerly known as the Rector, is the chief executive, elected by the Council of the college and Chairman of the Senate. The positi ...

and President of IEE, UK. He was elected an international member of the

National Academy of Engineering The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) is an American nonprofit, non-governmental organization. The National Academy of Engineering is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of ...

in 2001 for innovations in optics and acoustics and for leadership in education.

Early life and education

Eric Ash was born Ulrich Asch in Berlin, the son of Dorothea Cecily (Schwarz) and Walter J. Asch, a Jewish lawyer. The family emigrated to England in 1938 to escape

Nazism Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) i ...

. He was educated at the independent

University College School ("Slowly but surely") , established = , closed = , type = Public schoolIndependent day school , religion = , president = , head_label = Headmaster , head = Mark Beard , r_head_label = , r_he ...

, and at 17 won a scholarship to

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 ...

. After graduating in electrical engineering, he continued his studies with doctoral research. His

PhD PHD or PhD may refer to: * Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), an academic qualification Entertainment * '' PhD: Phantasy Degree'', a Korean comic series * '' Piled Higher and Deeper'', a web comic * Ph.D. (band), a 1980s British group ** Ph.D. (Ph.D. al ...

supervisor was

Dennis Gabor Dennis Gabor ( ; hu, Gábor Dénes, ; 5 June 1900 – 9 February 1979) was a Hungarian-British electrical engineer and physicist, most notable for inventing holography, for which he later received the 1971 Nobel Prize in Physics. He obtained ...

, a

Nobel Prize The Nobel Prizes ( ; sv, Nobelpriset ; no, Nobelprisen ) are five separate prizes that, according to Alfred Nobel's will of 1895, are awarded to "those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind." Alfr ...

-winning physicist, and his thesis was published as ''Electron Interaction Effects'' (1952). He worked on microwave tubes as a

Fulbright scholar The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States Cultural Exchange Programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the people o ...

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is conside ...

for two years, before returning to England to continue this work at the Standard Telecommunications Laboratory in London.

Career and research

Ash joined the Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering at University College in 1963, became a full professor in 1967. He was appointed Head of Department, and holder of the

Pender Chair The Pender Chair is the post that is generally held by the head of the Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering of University College London. John Pender (pictured in the caricature on the right), the founder of Cable and Wireless ...

, in 1980. He was elected 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

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 ...

on 17 March 1977, and was awarded its Clifford Paterson medal shortly afterwards. He was elected a

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 ...

in 1978. He worked on problems in physical electronics, ultrasonic signal processing and imaging. He won the Marconi Prize in 1984 "for leadership in electronic technology, including

surface acoustic wave A surface acoustic wave (SAW) is an acoustic wave traveling along the surface of a material exhibiting elasticity, with an amplitude that typically decays exponentially with depth into the material, such that they are confined to a depth of about ...

devices and optical fibre communications". He won the Royal Society

Royal Medal The Royal Medal, also known as The Queen's Medal and The King's Medal (depending on the gender of the monarch at the time of the award), is a silver-gilt medal, of which three are awarded each year by the Royal Society, two for "the most important ...

in 1986, in "recognition of his outstanding researches on acoustic

microscopy Microscopy is the technical field of using microscopes to view objects and areas of objects that cannot be seen with the naked eye (objects that are not within the resolution range of the normal eye). There are three well-known branches of micr ...

leading to wholly new techniques and substantial improvements in resolution of acoustic microscopes". He also won the

Institution of Electrical Engineers The Institution of Electrical Engineers (IEE) was a British professional organisation of electronics, electrical, manufacturing, and Information Technology professionals, especially electrical engineers. It began in 1871 as the Society of T ...

Faraday Medal The Faraday Medal is a top international medal awarded by the UK Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) (previously called the Institution of Electrical Engineers (IEE)). It is part of the IET Achievement Medals collection of awards. ...

. He is a Senior Member and Life Fellow of the

Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is a 501(c)(3) professional association for electronic engineering and electrical engineering (and associated disciplines) with its corporate office in New York City and its operation ...

(an organisation based in the United States that complements the IET). Ash became Rector of Imperial College in 1985. He sat on the board of

British Telecom BT Group plc (trading as BT and formerly British Telecom) is a British multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered in London, England. It has operations in around 180 countries and is the largest provider of fixed-line, b ...

as a

non-executive director A non-executive director (abbreviated to non-exec, NED or NXD), independent director or external director is a member of the board of directors of a corporation, such as a company, cooperative or non-government organization, but not a member of th ...

from 1987–1993. In 1988, he was President of the IEE for one year. In 1987, he was made an honorary fellow of the Royal Microscopical Society. After retiring as Rector in 1993, Ash was an emeritus professor in the Department of Physics at University College, 1993–1998, working on

educational technology Educational technology (commonly abbreviated as edutech, or edtech) is the combined use of computer hardware, software, and educational theory and practice to facilitate learning. When referred to with its abbreviation, edtech, it often refe ...

. He acted as

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

of the

Student Loans Company The Student Loans Company (SLC) is an executive non-departmental public body company in the United Kingdom that provides student loans. It is owned by the UK Government's Department for Education (85%), the Scottish Government (5%), the Welsh ...

1994–1996, remaining a non-executive director of the company until the end of August 2000. Ash was Treasurer and Vice-President of the Royal Society 1997–2002. He has also served as a trustee of a number of other organisations including the Afghan Educational Trust, the Dennis Rosen Memorial Trust, the

Royal Institution The Royal Institution of Great Britain (often the Royal Institution, Ri or RI) is an organisation for scientific education and research, based in the City of Westminster. It was founded in 1799 by the leading British scientists of the age, inc ...

, the London Science Museum and the

Wolfson Foundation The Wolfson Foundation is a charity that awards grants to support excellence in the fields of science and medicine, health, education and the arts and humanities. Overview The endowment of the Wolfson Foundation is currently some £800 million, ...

. He is a member of the Advisory Council of the

Campaign for Science and Engineering The Campaign for Science and Engineering (CaSE) is a non-profit organisation that is the UK's leading independent advocate for science and engineering. It focuses on arguing for more research funding, promoting a high-tech and knowledge-based e ...

and an international member of the

. In 2017, he was elected an Honorary Fellow of the Institute of Physics, UK.

Death

On 22 August 2021, Sir Eric Ash peacefully died at home at the age of 93.

References

External links

Includes a short biographyInterviewed at the Imperial College tv studio in May, 2000
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ash, Eric 1928 births 2021 deaths Fellows of the Royal Society Fellows of the Royal Academy of Engineering Fellows of the Institution of Engineering and Technology Members of the United States National Academy of Engineering Foreign Members of the Russian Academy of Sciences British electrical engineers Academics of University College London Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Knights Bachelor Alumni of Imperial College London Rectors of Imperial College London People educated at University College School Royal Medal winners People associated with the Science Museum, London Engineers from Berlin British Telecom people Jewish emigrants from Nazi Germany to the United Kingdom