Jonathan Tennyson | |
---|---|
Born | Charles Jonathan Penrose Tennyson 11 May 1955 Hitchin, Hertfordshire, England |
Nationality | British |
Alma mater | University of Cambridge University of Sussex |
Occupation | Physicist |
Scientific career | |
Institutions | University College London |
Thesis | Studies in the ab initio calculation of molecular energies. (1980) |
Website | www |
Charles Jonathan Penrose Tennyson FRS (born 11 May 1955) is a British physicist. He is the Massey Professor of Physics (since 2005) and Head of department at the Department of Physics and Astronomy, University College London (2004–11). Chief Scientist Quantemol Ltd and chair, Blue Skies Space Ltd. [1] [2]
He was educated at Bootham School, [3] York. He continued his studies at King's College, Cambridge and the University of Sussex.
Tennyson is an author of over 700 scientific papers focusing on applications of molecular spectroscopy to problems in astrophysics, atmospheric science, plasma physics and other fields. He has written a number of popular science articles. He wrote the undergraduate textbook Astronomical Spectroscopy: An Introduction to the Atomic and Molecular Physics of Astronomical Spectra (2005). [1] Leader of the ExoMol project.
He received the 2007 Ellis R. Lippincott Award from The Optical Society and was also elected a Fellow of the Society. [4] Tennyson was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 2009. [1]
Tennyson was awarded the 2025 Royal Astronomical Society’s Gold Medal for his pioneering work advancing our understanding of exoplanets. [5]
He is the son of Hallam Tennyson, grandson of Sir Charles Tennyson and is the great-great-grandson of Alfred Lord Tennyson. [6] He is the father of actor Matthew Tennyson.
Gerhard Heinrich Friedrich Otto Julius Herzberg, was a German-Canadian pioneering physicist and physical chemist, who won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1971, "for his contributions to the knowledge of electronic structure and geometry of molecules, particularly free radicals". Herzberg's main work concerned atomic and molecular spectroscopy. He is well known for using these techniques that determine the structures of diatomic and polyatomic molecules, including free radicals which are difficult to investigate in any other way, and for the chemical analysis of astronomical objects. Herzberg served as Chancellor of Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada from 1973 to 1980.
Sir Joseph Norman Lockyer was an English scientist and astronomer. Along with the French scientist Pierre Janssen, he is credited with discovering the gas helium. Lockyer also is remembered for being the founder and first editor of the influential journal Nature.
William John Hamilton was a British geologist who served as a Conservative Member of Parliament.
Baron Tennyson, of Aldworth in the County of Sussex and of Freshwater in the Isle of Wight, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1884 for the poet Alfred Tennyson. His son, the second Baron, served as Governor-General of Australia, and his grandson, the third Baron, as a captain for the English cricket team. On the death in 2006 of the latter's younger son, the fifth Baron, the line of the eldest son of the first Baron failed. The title was inherited by the late Baron's second cousin once removed, the sixth and present holder of the peerage. He is the great-grandson of Hon. Lionel Tennyson, second son of the first Baron.
Peter Day, FRS, FRSC, FInstP was a British inorganic chemist and Professor of Chemistry at Oxford University and later at University College London (UCL).
Michael John Seaton was an influential British mathematician, atomic physicist, and astronomer.
Dame Carole Jordan,, is a British physicist, astrophysicist, astronomer and academic. Currently, she is Professor Emeritus of Astrophysics at the University of Oxford and Emeritus Fellow at Somerville College, Oxford. From 1994 to 1996, she was President of the Royal Astronomical Society; she was the first woman to hold this appointment. She won the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society in 2005; she was only the third female recipient following Caroline Herschel in 1828 and Vera Rubin in 1996. She was head of the Rudolf Peierls Centre for Theoretical Physics at the University of Oxford from 2003 to 2004 and 2005 to 2008, and was one of the first female professors in Astronomy in Britain. She was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2006 for services to physics and astronomy.
James Jeffrey Binney, FRS, FInstP is a British astrophysicist. He is a professor of physics at the University of Oxford and former head of the Sub-Department of Theoretical Physics as well as an Emeritus Fellow of Merton College. Binney is known principally for his work in theoretical galactic and extragalactic astrophysics, though he has made a number of contributions to areas outside of astrophysics as well.
Sir Alan Walsh FAA FRS was a British-Australian physicist, originator and developer of a method of chemical analysis called atomic absorption spectroscopy.
Laurence David Barron has been Gardiner Professor of Chemistry at the University of Glasgow since 1998. He is a chemist who has conducted pioneering research into the properties of chiral molecules — defined by Lord Kelvin as those that cannot be superimposed onto their mirror image. By extending this definition of chirality to include moving particles and processes that vary with time, he has made a fundamental theoretical contribution to the field. Chiral molecules such as amino acids, sugars, proteins, and nucleic acids play a central role in the chemistry of life, and many drug molecules are chiral. Laurence's work on Raman optical activity — a spectroscopic technique capable of determining the three-dimensional structures of chiral molecules, which he predicted, observed, and applied to problems at the forefront of chemistry and structural biology — has led to its development as a powerful analytical tool used in academic and industrial laboratories worldwide. His much-cited book, Molecular Light Scattering and Optical Activity, has contributed to the growing impact of chirality on many areas of modern science.
Alan Carrington CBE, FRS was a British chemist and one of the leading spectroscopists in Britain in the late twentieth century.
Jonathan Felix Ashmore is a British physicist and Bernard Katz Professor of Biophysics at University College London.
Mark Sheard Child FRS is a British chemist, and Emeritus Fellow of St Edmund Hall, Oxford.
Timothy Noel Palmer is a mathematical physicist by training. He has spent most of his career working on the dynamics and predictability of weather and climate. Among various research achievements, he pioneered the development of probabilistic ensemble forecasting techniques for weather and climate prediction. These techniques are now standard in operational weather and climate prediction around the world, and are central for reliable decision making for many commercial and humanitarian applications.
Brian J. Orr is an Australian scientist known for various experimental and theoretical contributions to molecular and optical physics, including laser spectroscopy and optical parametric oscillators.
Edward Roy Pike FRS is an Australian physicist, specializing in quantum optics.
Andrew John Orr-Ewing is a British chemist and Professor of physical chemistry at the University of Bristol. His work investigates the mechanisms of chemical reaction in both the gas and liquid phases and has used ultrafast laser spectroscopy to observe the effects of solvents on molecular reaction and the dynamics of photodissociation.
David John Richardson is a British optoelectronics researcher and fellow of both the Royal Society (FRS) and the Royal Academy of Engineering (FREng). He is currently a Partner Researcher at Microsoft, based in Romsey, UK, where he leads research on hollow core optical fiber technology—an approach that guides light through an air-filled core rather than conventional solid glass. Before joining Microsoft, he spent 34 years at the Optoelectronics Research Centre (ORC) at the University of Southampton. While at the ORC, he served as Professor, Deputy Director, and Head of the Fibre and Laser Group, making significant contributions to advanced optical fibre and laser research.
Timothy Peter Softley is a British scientist who is Pro-vice-chancellor (PVC) for research and knowledge transfer at the University of Birmingham.
John Philip Simons is a British physical chemist known for his research in photochemistry and photophysics, molecular reaction dynamics and the spectroscopy of biological molecules. He was professor of physical chemistry at the University of Nottingham (1981–93) and Dr. Lee's Professor of Chemistry at the University of Oxford (1993–99).
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