John Steeds facts for kids

John Wickham Steeds (born 9 February 1940) is a British scientist. He studies physics and materials science. He is a professor at the University of Bristol.

Exploring Materials

John Steeds is famous for studying the tiny structures inside materials. He uses powerful tools like electron microscopy and convergent-beam electron diffraction. These tools help him see things too small for regular microscopes.

Early in his career, he did important work on copper crystals. He looked at tiny flaws, called dislocations, in copper that had been shaped. This research helped explain how metals get stronger when you bend or work with them.

Steeds also wrote a key book about how materials stretch and bend. This book is a standard guide for scientists. He helped create a full system to figure out how atoms are arranged in materials. He used electron microscopes for this work. Many people see him as a top expert in this method.

His research has helped in many ways. For example, it helped understand tiny bits that form in steels. It also helped fix mistakes in how we thought some special materials were built. He was even the first to see special "waves" (called solitons) moving in certain layered materials. This showed how these materials change from one state to another.

Awards and Honors

John Steeds has received several important awards for his work. In 1988, he became a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS). This is a very high honor for scientists in the United Kingdom.

In 1996, he won the Holweck Medal. This award is given by physics groups in both the United Kingdom and France.