Submitted by Administrator on Fri, 31/07/2020 - 13:15
John Adkins 1934 – 2020
Members of the Department will be saddened to learn of the death of John Adkins. John was an outstanding experimentalist who was a member of the Low Temperature Physics Group from the beginning of his PhD programme in 1956. His expertise was in the many complex phenomena found in materials at low temperatures and included studies of superconductivity, electronic conduction in disordered systems, quantum mechanical tunnelling and the metal-insulator transition. He was appointed a University Lecturer in 1964, and went on to lead the Group from 1982 until his retirement in 1999.
John was an outstanding teacher and was heavily involved in all aspects of the Laboratory’s teaching programme. His book Equilibrium Thermodynamics has long been a standard and much-appreciated text for undergraduate students, its third edition being published in 1983 and it was published on-line in 2013.
John was an excellent musician, playing the oboe to a high standard and being President of the Jesus College Musical Society for 33 years, from 1976 to 2009. He was President of Jesus College from 1982 to 1985.
We pass on to Tess and their family our sincere condolences.