Iain Salisbury

BSc Physics, 1969

In 1966, I joined the first group to read physics at Warwick. It was only later that I discovered why the department was a year behind in getting started. There was no Physics building and we camped out on the East Site throughout my time there. Head John Forty concentrated on solid state physics and I developed a strong interest in electron microscopy.

On graduating, I made aeroplanes at Hawker Siddeley, Hatfield, before leaving to pursue an MSc in solid state physics in the Physics Department of Birmingham University. There, I heard that a million volt electron microscope was being commissioned in the Department of Physical Metallurgy (as it then was) so the lure of the PhD became irresistible. I was admitted to the Congregation in 1978, following research into crystal defects in silicon.

I spent a year teaching computational physics at the University of Surrey, where I also worked on a project called WISE (Women Into Science and Engineering) with the first woman to head a physics department in Britain, Daphne Jackson. She died tragically young and I’m delighted to say that the Institute of Physics has established a medal and prize in her memory. At the end of this contract, I returned to Birmingham for several postdoc projects.

Eventually, I accepted a long-standing invitation to join the Metallurgy Department at Oxford. In the course of time, a colleague at Oxford, became head of Metallurgy at Liverpool and I joined him there for a number of years.

In later life, I’ve developed an enthusiasm for Texas.