Sir Peter Hirsch obituary | Materials science
When Peter Hirsch produced the first images of defects in crystal structures using transmission electron microscopy at the Rutherford Laboratory at the University of Cambridge, he transformed our understanding of materials science and redefined our knowledge of crystallography.
In particular, in 1956, he and his team directly observed a specific type of defects, called dislocations, in pieces of stainless steel and aluminum foil, which had previously been only a somewhat controversial hypothesis. These defects are important because they control the ductility of the material, that is, its ability to undergo deformation before breaking.
Specifically, in metallurgy, the understanding and control of dislocations has been fundamental to the modern use of metals. Without them, metals could not be used as construction materials in areas ranging from bridge construction to architecture to rail transportation, because they would be too fragile. Hirsch, who died at the age of 100, realized that identifying where such dislocations occur helps us better understand the strength of a metal and, more importantly, how to make it even stronger.
Later, in 1965, alongside co-authors Archie Howie, Robin Nicholson, Don Pashley and Michael Whelan, Hirsch published Electron Microscopy of Thin Crystals – known in the industry as the “Yellow Bible” due to its original yellow cover. Following frequent updates and reprints, it is still considered a field-defining text.
Hirsch was born in Berlin to Jewish parents, Ismar, who worked in the textile industry, and Regina (née Less). His birth name was Kurt, which he later changed to Peter, upon arriving in the UK. When he was nine years old, his parents divorced and his father died two years later, in 1936.
On the night of November 9, 1938, at the age of 13, Hirsch witnessed firsthand the events of Kristallnacht (Night of Broken Glass), a pogrom against German Jews. Nazi Party paramilitaries, aided by the Hitler Youth, smashed the windows of Jewish-owned stores, schools and synagogues and invaded the homes of Jewish families.
Hirsch’s older brother Hans, who later adopted the first name John, was already in the UK studying engineering. His remarried mother, worried about the deteriorating situation in Germany, asked an English friend to send her a false telegram demanding that she look after her sick son in London, leaving Hirsch behind with his father-in-law. Once she managed to extend her visa after agreeing to work in Chelsea as a domestic worker, she arranged for her remaining son to be placed on a Kindertransport train. He arrived in England on January 1, 1939, followed shortly after by his father-in-law.
Hirsch attended Sloane High School in Chelsea, excelling despite also having to learn English, and in 1943 he was offered a place at St Catharine’s College, Cambridge, where he studied natural sciences and physics. He graduated summa cum laude in 1946 and joined the crystallography department at the Cavendish Laboratory to study a master’s and then a doctorate in Board, consisted of studying the crystallography of coal, work still cited today.
After his pioneering research in transmission electron microscopy, he moved to the University of Oxford in 1966 to take up the Isaac Wolfson Chair of Metallurgy, where he remained until his retirement in 1992. Throughout the latter part of the 20th century, under his leadership, the Department of Metallurgy (now the Department of Materials) at Oxford became the preeminent institution in this field. His co-author Howie said: “He had great intuition about what experiments to do and was brilliant at interpreting the results. »
Known to everyone in his field as PBH, he was so immersed in his work that colleagues remembered him phoning the department to ask how experiments were progressing while he was supposed to be on vacation, explaining that he was calling from a payphone “so my wife wouldn’t find out.”
He was known for championing skills, whatever their source, and the departments he led were notable for their international mix of students. His liberal humanist outlook and early life experiences led him to encourage students from diverse backgrounds to realize their potential, even if their circumstances are unfavorable. “The academic environment and common scientific interests overcame all political differences,” he said. Many of the students he mentored went on to become internationally significant players in their own fields.
He was knighted in 1975 for services to industry after becoming a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1963. Between 1982 and 1984 he chaired the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority. An undergraduate scholarship in his name is offered to the Department of Materials at Oxford, which in 2001 also launched a biennial lecture series in his honour.
In 1959 he married Mabel Kellar (née Stephens), known as Steve, Librarian. She had two children from a previous marriage, Janet and Paul.
Steve died in 2016. Hirsch is survived by his stepchildren.
