Brebis Bleaney facts for kids

Brebis Bleaney (born June 6, 1915, died November 4, 2006) was a brilliant British scientist who studied physics. He spent most of his career researching how to use microwaves to understand the magnetic properties of solid materials.

He led the famous Clarendon Laboratory at the University of Oxford for 20 years, from 1957 to 1977. In 1992, he received the international Zavoisky Award. This award recognized his important work on something called electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) in crystals.

Early Life and Education

Brebis Bleaney was born in Chelsea, London, on June 6, 1915. His father, Frederick, was a house painter, and his mother, Eva, was from Denmark.

He went to Cook's Ground School in Chelsea. From there, he won a scholarship to attend Westminster City School. In 1933, he earned another scholarship to St John's College, Oxford. He chose to study physics there.

Brebis graduated with top honors in 1937. He then continued his studies, working with his supervisor, Francis Simon. He earned his DPhil degree (a type of doctorate) in 1939.

Career and Wartime Contributions

After finishing his DPhil, Bleaney started working at the new Clarendon Laboratory. But then World War II began. Like many other scientists, he was asked to help with war efforts.

Brebis joined a team in Oxford that was developing microwave technology for radar. Radar uses radio waves to detect objects. He made many important contributions to this project. He was especially good at developing special vacuum tubes called klystrons. These tubes are used to generate microwaves.

In 1943, an American scientist named Jerrold R. Zacharias visited the Oxford team. He was impressed by their K-band reflex klystron. It was much easier to make and more reliable than similar devices developed elsewhere. Brebis Bleaney later visited Waltham, Massachusetts, in the USA. This visit led to the Raytheon company making these klystrons on a large scale for the war effort.

Research in Oxford

In 1945, Brebis Bleaney became a university lecturer in Oxford. Two years later, in 1947, he became a fellow of St John's College.

His research group focused on studying magnetic materials. They looked at how different paramagnetic substances behaved at very low temperatures. Their work made Oxford a world leader in research on EPR. EPR is a scientific method used to study materials that have magnetic properties.

Awards and Recognition

Brebis Bleaney was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 1950. This is a very high honor for scientists in the UK. In 1956, he became the Dr Lee's Professor of Experimental Philosophy at Oxford. This meant he was in charge of the physics department.

This role involved a lot of administrative work, which he didn't enjoy as much as research. He stepped down from the position once he felt he had done his part. In 1965, he was made a Commander of the British Empire (CBE). He also became a member of the French Academy of Sciences in 1974.

He received several prestigious awards:

• The Royal Society's Hughes Medal in 1962.
• The European Holdwek Medal in 1984.

Brebis Bleaney was even considered for the Nobel Prize for Physics for two different discoveries. Although he never won the Nobel Prize, his legacy lives on. Since 2019, the Department of Physics in Oxford holds an annual Brebis Bleaney Memorial Lecture in his honor.

Personal Life

In 1949, Brebis Bleaney married Betty Isabelle Plumpton. Betty had been one of his students. They even wrote a book together called Electricity and Magnetism, published in two parts in 1957.

They had two children. Their son, Michael Bleaney, became a well-known economist. Their daughter, Carol Heather Bleaney, studied the Middle East and has published many works on the topic.

Brebis Bleaney passed away at his home in Oxford on November 4, 2006.