Sir Peter Bernhard Hirsch HonFRMS FRS (born 16 January 1925) is a figure in British materials science who has made fundamental contributions to the application of

transmission electron microscopy Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) is a microscopy technique in which a beam of electrons is transmitted through a specimen to form an image. The specimen is most often an ultrathin section less than 100 nm thick or a suspension on a ...

to metals. Hirsch attended Sloane Grammar School, Chelsea, and

St Catharine's College, Cambridge St Catharine's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1473 as Katharine Hall, it adopted its current name in 1860. The college is nicknamed "Catz". The college is located in the historic city-centre of Cam ...

. In 1946 he joined the

Crystallography Crystallography is the experimental science of determining the arrangement of atoms in crystalline solids. Crystallography is a fundamental subject in the fields of materials science and solid-state physics ( condensed matter physics). The wor ...

Department of the

Cavendish Cavendish may refer to: People * The House of Cavendish, a British aristocratic family * Margaret Cavendish (1623–1673), British poet, philosopher, and scientist * Cavendish (author) (1831–1899), pen name of Henry Jones, English au ...

to work for a PhD on work hardening in metals under W.H. Taylor and

Lawrence Bragg Sir William Lawrence Bragg, (31 March 1890 – 1 July 1971) was an Australian-born British physicist and X-ray crystallographer, discoverer (1912) of Bragg's law of X-ray diffraction, which is basic for the determination of crystal struct ...

. He subsequently carried out work, which is still cited, on the structure of

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal is formed when ...

. In the mid-1950s he pioneered the application of

(TEM) to metals and developed in detail the theory needed to interpret such images. He was a Fellow of Christ's College, Cambridge from 1960 to 1966 and was elected an Honorary Fellow of Christ's in 1978. In 1965, with

Howie Howie is a Scottish locational surname derived from a medieval estate in Ayrshire, southwest Scotland. While its ancient name is known as "The lands of How", its exact location is lost to time. The word "How", predating written history, appears ...

, Whelan, Pashley and Nicholson, he published the text ''Electron microscopy of thin crystals''. The following year he moved to Oxford to take up the

Isaac Wolfson Sir Isaac Wolfson, 1st Baronet FRS (; 17 September 1897 – 20 June 1991) was a Scottish businessman and philanthropist. He was managing director of Great Universal Stores (G.U.S. or Gussies) 1932–1947 and chairman 1947–1987. He establish ...

Chair in Metallurgy, succeeding

William Hume-Rothery William Hume-Rothery OBE FRS (15 May 1899 – 27 September 1968) was an English metallurgist and materials scientist who studied the constitution of alloys. Early life and education Hume-Rothery was born the son of lawyer Joseph Hume-Rother ...

. He held this post until his retirement in 1992, building up the Department of Metallurgy (now the Department of Materials) into a world-renowned centre. Among many other honours, he was awarded the 1983 Wolf Foundation Prize in physics. 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 ...

in 1963 and knighted in 1975. Hirsch was elected a 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 experimentally establishing the role of dislocations in plastic flow and of electron microscopy as a tool for materials research. He is also a fellow of St Edmund Hall, Oxford.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hirsch, Peter 1925 births Living people Alumni of Christ's College, Cambridge Alumni of St Catharine's College, Cambridge British materials scientists British metallurgists Microscopists Fellows of the Royal Society Foreign Members of the Russian Academy of Sciences British Jews Jewish scientists Wolf Prize in Physics laureates Isaac Wolfson Professors of Metallurgy Fellows of St Edmund Hall, Oxford Knights Bachelor Royal Medal winners Recipients of the Lomonosov Gold Medal Fellows of the Royal Microscopical Society