Sir Denys Wilkinson, British nuclear physicist, Died at 93

  Reseacher

Sir Denys Haigh Wilkinson was born on September 5, 1922, in Leeds, Yorkshire and died on April 22, 2016.

He was a British nuclear physicist.

He educated at Loughborough Grammar School and Jesus College, Cambridge, graduating in 1943.

Following wartime work on the British and Canadian Atomic Energy projects, he returned to Cambridge in 1946, where he was awarded a PhD in 1947 and held posts culminating as Reader in Nuclear Physics from 1956–1957.

Sir Denys was a fellow of Jesus College, Cambridge (1944 to 1959).

Wilkinson was made a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1956.

Sir Denys Wilkinson went to the University of Oxford as Professor of Nuclear Physics, in 1957.

During 1959, Wilkinson became Professor of Experimental Physics at Oxford, and from 1962 to 1976 was head of the Department of Nuclear Physics.

While he was serving as a professor at Oxford, he was a Fellow (there called a Student) of Christ Church, Oxford.

In 1974, Wilkinson was knighted.

The Nuclear Physics Laboratory at the University of Oxford, in 2001, which he had helped to design, was renamed the Denys Wilkinson Building in his honour.

When he left Oxford, Wilkinson served as Vice-Chancellor of the University of Sussex from 1976 to 1987.

Following his retirement, he was appointed Emeritus Professor of Physics at Sussex in 1987.

His work in nuclear physics included investigation of the properties of nuclei with low numbers of nucleons.

Wilkinson was one of the first to experimentally test rules relating to isospin.

Wilkinson had also applied concepts from physics to the study of bird navigation.

Wilkinson was also notable for the invention of the Wilkinson Analog-to-Digital Converter, to support his experimental work.

Sir Denys Wilkinson died on 22 April 2016 at the age of 93.

Wilkinson’s papers are held at the Churchill Archives Centre in Cambridge.

Sir Denys Wilkinson was an Honorary Fellow of Jesus College, Cambridge from 1961, and an Honorary Student of Christ Church, Oxford from 1979.

Sir Denys Wilkinson won the Hughes Medal of the Royal Society in 1965 and the Royal Medal in 1980.

Sir Denys Wilkinson passed away at 93 yrs old.