Sir Peter Bernhard Hirsch

Sir Peter Bernhard Hirsch was born Jan. 16, 1925, to Ismar and Regina Hirsch. Educated at Sloane School, Chelsea, he took his B.A. in 1946 from St Catharine's College, Cambridge, and became a research student at Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge, taking his M.A. in 1950 and his Ph.D. a year later. At the Cavendish Laboratory, Hirsch carried out research on the relation between microstructure and the mechanical properties of metals and alloys. After studying first the detailed structure of metals by means of fine beam X-rays, he and his colleagues developed in 1956 an electron transmission microscope technique whereby individual crystal lattice defects, called dislocations, can be resolved and their structure, arrangement and interactions studied. Professor Hirsch and his research group developed the basic theory of contrast of electron microscope images of lattice defects and applied this technique to the study of a number of basic problems in dislocation theory, and associated with the use of metals and alloys, including their strength, work-hardening, fatigue and annealing behavior.

In 1959 Hirsch married Mabel Anne Kellar (nee Stephens), widow of James Noel Kellar. That year he was appointed Lecturer in Physics at Cambridge, and a year later made a Fellow of Christ's College, Cambridge. (In 1978 Christ's College named him an Honorary Fellow.) He was appointed Reader in Physics at Cambridge in 1964, a position he retained for two years. After coming to Oxford in 1966 as Head of the Department of Metallurgy and Science of Materials, he turned his attention to the mechanical properties of dispersion hardened alloys, the mechanism of climb of dissociated dislocations, the nature of defects in semiconductors and, more recently, to the effect of doping on the mechanical properties of semiconductors and ceramics, as well as to the mechanisms of work hardening in ordered alloys.

As indefatigable with his pen as his microscope, Hirsch published scores of articles in learned journals. In 1965 his Electron Microscopy of Thin Crystals was issued, and quickly became a standard. Already a Fellow of the Royal Society and the recipient of the Rosenhain Medal of the Institute of Metals and the C.V. Boyes Prize of the Institute of Physics and Physical Society, Hirsch began to be showered with honors: honorary doctorates from such schools as Newcastle, East Anglia, Northwestern and City universities; the Clamer Medal of the Franklin Institute, which also made him a Life Fellow, Helsinki's Wihuri International Prize, the Hughes Medal of the Royal Society, the Platinum Medal of the Metals Society, the Royal Medal of the Royal Society and the A.A. Griffith Silver Medal of the Materials Science Club; and Fellowships and Honorary Fellowships in such societies as the Institute of Physics, Institution of Metallurgists, Royal Microscopical Society and the Japan Society of Electron Microscopy. In 1975 he was honored by his nation and made Knight Bachelor. Sir Peter in 1982 was appointed Chairman of the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority. His work in metallurgy had led to the assessment of the integrity of pressurized water reactors, and a unique understanding of the damage caused by irradiation in nuclear reactors.

Notable awards

• Franklin J. Clamer Medal (1970)
• Hughes Medal (1973)
• Royal Medal (1977)
• Wolf Prize in Physics (1983/4)
• Lomonosov Gold Medal of Russian Academy of Sciences (2005)
• Fellow of the Royal Society