Alan Cottrell Explained

Sir Alan Cottrell
Honorific-Suffix:	FRS
Birth Date:	17 July 1919
Birth Place:	Birmingham, Warwickshire (now West Midlands)
Death Place:	Cambridge, Cambridgeshire
Known For:	Cottrell atmosphere Lomer–Cottrell junction Crack tip opening displacement
Citizenship:	British
Nationality:	English
Fields:	Metallurgist, Physicist
Alma Mater:	University of Birmingham

Sir Alan Howard Cottrell, FRS^[1] (17 July 1919 – 15 February 2012) was an English metallurgist and physicist. He was also former Chief Scientific Advisor to the UK Government and vice-chancellor of Cambridge University 1977–1979.

Early life

Cottrell was educated at Moseley Grammar School and the University of Birmingham, where he gained a Bachelor of Science degree in 1939 and a PhD for research on welding in 1942.^[2]

Career

Cottrell joined the staff as a lecturer at Birmingham, being made professor in 1949, and transforming the teaching of the department by emphasising modern concepts of solid state physics.^[3] In 1955 he moved to A.E.R.E. Harwell, to become Deputy Head of Metallurgy under Monty Finniston.^[3]

From 1958 to 1965 Cottrell was Goldsmiths' Professor of Metallurgy at Cambridge University, and a fellow of Christ's College. He later worked for the government in various capacities, ultimately as Chief Scientific Adviser from 1971 to 1974,^[4] before becoming Master of Jesus College, Cambridge, from 1973 to 1986,^[5] and Vice-Chancellor of the university in 1977–1979.^[6]

Death

Cottrell died on 15 February 2012 after a brief illness.^[7]

Awards and honours

• 1955 Elected Fellow of the Royal Society^[8]
• 1961 Hughes Medal^[9]
• 1962 Francis J. Clamer Medal
• 1963 Royal Society Bakerian Medal
• 1965 He was the first to be awarded the A. A. Griffith Medal and Prize.
• 1967 James Alfred Ewing Medal.^[10]
• 1969 Fernand Holweck Medal and Prize
• 1971 He was knighted.^[5]
• 1973 Honorary Degree (Doctor of Science) from the University of Bath.^[11]
• 1974 James Douglas Gold Medal^[12]
• 1982 Honorary doctorate from the University of Essex
• 1996 Copley Medal (the Royal Society's highest award)^{[13] [14]}

He was a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.^[15]

Selected books

• Theoretical Structural Metallurgy (1948) (E Arnold; 2nd Revised edition (1 January 1955))
• Dislocations and Plastic Flows in Crystals (1953)
• Superconductivity (1964) (Harwood Academic (Medical, Reference and Social Sc; n edition (December 1964))
• An Introduction to Metallurgy (1967)
• Portrait of Nature : the world as seen by modern science (1975)
• How Safe is Nuclear Energy? (1982) (Heinemann Educational Publishers (29 June 1981))
• Concepts in the Electron Theory of Alloys (1998)

See also

• Creep (deformation)

External links

• The National Archives lists his reports
• Listen to an oral history interview with Sir Alan Cottrell – a life story interview recorded for An Oral History of British Science at the British Library
• Tribute by Prof Peter Hirsch
• Obituary, The Daily Telegraph, 19 February 2012
• Obituary by Dr J.A. Charles
• AIME James Douglas Gold Medal in 1974 Biography at The American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical, and Petroleum Engineers.

Notes and References

1. Smallman . R. E. . Knott . J. F. . Sir Alan Cottrell FRS FREng. 17 July 1919 – 15 February 2012 . 10.1098/rsbm.2012.0042 . . 59 . 93–124 . 2013 . free .
2. Web site: Sir Alan Howard Cottrell ScD, FRS, FREng, LLD (Hon). Charles. J A. February 2012. Academia Europaea. 19 December 2017.
3. http://www.eng.bham.ac.uk/metallurgy/history.shtml History of Metallurgy at Birmingham
4. Scientists in Whitehallby Philip Gummett p49, available at Google books
5. http://www.jesus.cam.ac.uk/college/history/masters.html Masters of Jesus College
6. Web site: Alan Cottrell. Kaiser Danner. 24 July 2017. Academia Europaea. 19 December 2017.
7. Web site: Sir Alan Cottrell FRS – Christs College Cambridge. 12 January 2017. https://web.archive.org/web/20120527174008/http://www.christs.cam.ac.uk/news/pg/article

   340

   . 27 May 2012. dead. dmy-all.
8. News: Sir Alan Cottrell obituary. Knott. John. 2012-03-18. The Guardian. 2017-12-19. en-GB. 0261-3077.
9. http://royalsociety.org/page.asp?id=1770 Hughes archive winners 1989 – 1902
10. The International Who's Who 2004
11. Web site: Corporate Information. 12 January 2017. 25 May 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20160525041553/http://www.bath.ac.uk/ceremonies/hongrads/older.html. dead.
12. Web site: Sir Alan Howard Cottrell. American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical, and Petroleum Engineers. 19 December 2017. 22 September 2020. https://web.archive.org/web/20200922193829/http://www.aimehq.org/programs/award/bio/sir-alan-howard-cottrell-0. dead.
13. http://royalsociety.org/page.asp?id=1741 Copley recent winners: 1990 – present day
14. http://www.oxforddnb.com/public/themes/93/93188.html Holders of the Copley medal (1731–2005)
15. Web site: The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences: Alan Cottrell. https://web.archive.org/web/20170814065557/http://www.kva.se/KVA_Root/eng/contact/searchcontacts/detail.asp?PersonID=996. dead. 14 August 2017. 1 May 2009.