Anthony French, British-American physicist, Died at 96

Anthony Philip French was born on November 19, 1920, in Brighton, England and died on February 3, 2017.

He was a British professor of physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

French was a graduate of Cambridge University, receiving his B.A. in 1942 and Ph. D. in 1948, both in physics.

During 1942, Anthony began working on the British effort to build an atomic bomb (codenamed Tube Alloys) at the Cavendish Laboratory.

As of 1944, Tube Alloys had been merged with the American Manhattan Project and he was sent to Los Alamos.

After the war ended, Anthony returned to the United Kingdom, where he spent a couple of years at the newly formed Atomic Energy Research Establishment.

Later, French joined the faculty at Cambridge, where he conducted his research at Cavendish and became a Fellow and Director of Studies in Natural Sciences at Pembroke College, Cambridge.

During 1955, he arrived at the University of South Carolina, where he was made the chairman of the physics department.

Then, in 1962 he left South Carolina to take a faculty position in the MIT Physics Department, where he remained until his death.

His main interest was undergraduate physics education.

French was chairman of the Commission on Physics Education of the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (1975-1981) and president of the American Association of Physics Teachers (1985-1986).

French was also a Fellow of the American Physical Society.

Anthony Philip French passed away at 96 years old.