As a student, I graduated from Cambridge University with a 1st class degree in Physics and subsequently obtained a PhD for ultrasonic measurements on liquid helium-3 at mK temperatures in the University's Royal Society Mond Laboratory. I am now an Emeritus (retired) Professor of Physics at the University of Birmingham, UK, where I taught courses on Electricity and Magnetism and Musical Acoustics and supervised many undergraduate and postgraduate research projects. My principal research in the Physics Department involved many PhD students and other collaborators, mostly on measurements of the quantum aspects of liquid helium-3 at mK temperatures and the physics of both conventional and high-temperature superconductors. This included in 1987 the first unambiguous evidence for superconductivity in the newly discovered high temperature superconductors and the measurement of the flux quantum, proving that these novel superconductors involved the pairing of electrons. In addition research was undertaken on the the magnetic, thermal, ultrasonic and and microwave properties of both conventional and high temperature superconductors including the first demonstration of the potential of high temperature superconductors for microwave applications, in a collaboration with ICI. In addition to being a Professor of Condensed Matter Physics, I was appointed University Director of Superconductivity Research coordinating the activities of over 60 academic and PhD researchers and technicians in Physics, Chemistry, Electrical Engineering and Materials Science. I was also a founder member and subsequent Chairman of the UK's Department of Industry and Research Council's National Committee on Superconductivity in the 1990's.
In addition, I play the violin and viola. While at school I led the National Youth Orchestra and obtained the Royal College of Music's ARCM (performing) diploma. At Cambridge University, I was President of the Music Club, responsible for Chamber Concerts every Saturday during term and leading the University Symphony, Opera and Chamber orchestras. On appointment in 1962 to an initial research Fellowship in Physics at Birmingham University, I was unexpectedly asked to lead the University's Hayward String Quarter, performing concerts for the next 30 years, in addition to playing the modern and baroque violin and viola in many local professional and amateur orchestras and chamber groups, which continues to the present day.
Not surprisingly, as a physicist and musician, I have always been interested in all aspects of musical acoustics and the violin family in particular. Serious research started with initiating a number of undergraduate projects on musical instruments including the first detailed measurements of vibrating string resonances on violins, cellos and the piano. This led to theoretical papers on the interaction of the vibrating string with the structural vibrations of the instrument, including an analytic model for the infamous "wolf-note", and a long-term interest in coupled oscillators in all fields of physics and musical acoustics. More recently, having retired form my full time research in condensed matter physics in 2002, I have published a number of papers on musical acoustics , including a major 100 page review article on Musical Acoustics for the Springer Handbook of Acoustics, and a chapter on the Electric Guitar and Violin for their book on The Science of String instruments. More recently, I have developed a successful model for the vibrational and acoustical properties of the violin family treated as a thin-walled, shallow, box-like, shell structure, with arched, guitar shaped plates. This, for the first time, accounts rather well for almost all the observed acoustic properties over their whole playing range. For the last ten years I have served as an "acoustics expert" at the Violin Society of America's annual Acoustics Workshop for violin makers at Oberlin (USA) and at a similar annual workshop in Villefavard in France. I enjoy interacting with violin makers, explaining the acoustics of the violin and developing measurements, which can easily be made in the luthier's workshop, as a way of characterising and monitoring the properties rof their instruments during both their making and final set-up. In particular, I have developed a very simple inexpensive way for both makers and researchers to characterise the important radiating modes of all members of the violin family. This involves measuring the sound inside the body of the instrument which, as a measurements of the radiating normal modes of an instrument, is directly related to the radiated sound, but without any complications from the surrounding acoustics.
On a personal level, I have been strongly supported throughout my career and active retirement by my wife Sophie, enjoying making music together in chamber and orchestral groups, listening to concerts and going to the theatre and cinema. We have three children, Robert, Jessica and John and eight grandchildren, all of whom give us immense pleasure. I have served on the Boards of a number of charitable organisations including the Joint Matriculation Board, which used to run O- and A-level public examinations, Birmingham's Science Museum (Think Tank), Friends of of Birmingham Museums, and the Cecil King Memorial Foundation. The latter charity helps to fund a wide range of activities including the the National Youth Orchestra and National Children's Orchestra, ballet studentship for both very young children and those graduating into the profession, and travel scholarships for two outstanding postgraduate mathematicians (in pure and applied maths), which I initiated in collaboration with the London Mathematical Society.