John Nye (scientist) explained

John Nye
Birth Date:26 February 1923
Alma Mater:King's College, Cambridge
Fields:Physics
Workplaces:University of Bristol
Notable Students:Heidy Mader
Children:3

John Frederick Nye (26 February 1923[1] – 8 January 2019[2]) was a British physicist and glaciologist. He was the first to apply plasticity to understand glacier flow.[3] [4] He was a member of the University of Bristol's physics department for 66 years.

Early life

Nye grew up in Hove, Sussex, the second of three children of Haydn Nye and Jessie Hague, daughter of Joshua Anderson Hague. His father was Catholic and his mother was Anglican, and Nye grew up going to both churches.

Nye attended Hawthornden's School kindergarten opposite his house; Holland House (later Claremont School), also in Hove, for preparatory school; and then boarded at Stowe School in Buckinghamshire for his secondary education. He won a Foundation scholarship to study mathematics and physics at King's College, Cambridge, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts (BA), a Master of Arts (MA), and finally a PhD in 1948.

Career

After completing his PhD, Nye was employed as a demonstrator in Cambridge's Department of Mineralogy and Petrology for three years and then had a year-long post-doctoral research position at Bell Telephone Laboratories in New Jersey. He subsequently returned to England and, in 1953, joined the University of Bristol.

His early work was on the physics of plasticity, spanning ice rheology, ice flow mechanics, laboratory ice flow measurements, glacier surges, meltwater penetration in ice, and response of glaciers and ice sheets to seasonal and climatic changes. Later in his long career, he worked extensively in optics, publishing his last paper on electromagnetic wave polarization only a few days before his death.[5]

He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1976.[4] [6] He served as president of the International Glaciological Society (1966–9),[4] who awarded him the Seligman Crystal in 1969 for outstanding contributions to glaciology.[7] He was also president of the International Commission of Snow and Ice of the International Association of Hydrological Sciences (1971–5).[8] The Cryosphere Focus Group of the American Geophysical Union hosts a Nye Lecture each year at its fall meeting.[9]

Nye worked into his nineties, even after his formal retirement, and "never lost his intellectual curiosity". When he grew too frail to physically go to the university, he would write papers from home. He was known at Bristol for his "his decency and his scientific generosity... His intellectual determination... balanced by his unfailing politeness".[10]

Personal life

In 1953, Nye married Georgiana Wiebenson, whom he had met during his year at Bell Laboratories, in the chapel of King's College Cambridge. They had three children: Hilary Catherine (b. 1957), Stephen Christopher (b. 1960), and Carolyn Lucy (b. 1963). Nye renovated a rundown house in Bristol into their family home. On the side, he was an avid gardener, and left the garden open as part of the National Open Garden Scheme. He also enjoyed snorkeling, painting, poetry, and the Christian choral tradition.[11]

Nye died on 8 January 2019 at age 95 from heart failure.

Awards and recognition

Nye won the Chree medal and prize in 1989. He was Emeritus Professor in Physics at the University of Bristol, UK.[12] In addition to glaciology, his research interests included caustics and microwave probes.

Books

Scientific publications

See also

References

  1. Web site: Merchant. Paul. National Life Stories an Oral History to British Sciences. The British Library Board.. 20 January 2016.
  2. Web site: John F. Nye 1923–2019. International Glaciological Society. 16 January 2019. 16 January 2019. 16 January 2019. https://web.archive.org/web/20190116161024/https://www.igsoc.org/news/johnnye/. dead.
  3. Book: Lalena, John N. . David A. Cleary. Principles of Inorganic Materials Design. registration. WileyIEEE. 2005. 183. 978-0-471-71488-0.
  4. http://royalsociety.org/DServe/dserve.exe?dsqIni=Dserve.ini&dsqApp=Archive&dsqCmd=Show.tcl&dsqSearch=RefNo=='EC%2F1976%2F26'&dsqDb=Catalog Certificates of Election and Candidature, RefNo EC/1976/26: Nye, John Frederick
  5. Nye . J F . Perturbing the polarisation of Riemann–Silberstein electromagnetic vortices . Journal of Optics . 1 January 2019 . 21 . 1 . 015002 . 10.1088/2040-8986/aaef24. 2019JOpt...21a5002N . 125406247 .
  6. Berry. Sir Michael. 2020. John Frederick Nye. 26 February 1923—8 January 2019. Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society. 69. 425–441. 10.1098/rsbm.2020.0002. 219546989. free.
  7. http://www.igsoc.org/awards/seligman/ The Seligman Crystal
  8. 10.1080/02626669709492015. Radok. Uwe. 1997. The International Commission on Snow and Ice (ICSI) and its precursors, 1894-1994. Hydrological Sciences . 42. 2. 131–140. free.
  9. http://www.agu.org/focus_group/cryosphere/nye_History.html AGU Cryosphere Focus Group Nye Lecture History
  10. Web site: Professor John Nye (1923-2019). University of Bristol. Michael. Berry. 13 March 2019. 22 April 2024.
  11. Web site: John Frederick Nye. 26 February 1923—8 January 2019. The Royal Society of Publishing. Sir Michael Berry FRS. 10 June 2020. 22 April 2024.
  12. http://www.phy.bris.ac.uk/people/nye_jf/index.html John Nye: Home page

External links