{{Short description|British condensed matter physicist (1928–2020)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=March 2023}} {{Infobox scientist | honorific_prefix = | birth_name = Alan Bernard Lidiard | birth_date = {{birth date|1928|05|09|df=y}} | birth_place = Waltham St Lawrence, England, UK | death_date = {{death_date_and_age|2020|11|21 |1928|05|09|df=y}} | death_place = | image = | fields = | known_for = | caption = | education = King's College London | doctoral_advisor = Charles Coulson | academic_advisors = Friedrich Seitz<br>Charles Kittel | thesis_title = The theory of collective electron ferromagnetism | thesis_url = https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1006114937 | workplaces = University of Reading<br>Atomic Energy Research Establishment<br>University of Oxford | doctoral_students = Richard Catlow | website = }}
'''Alan Bernard Lidiard''' (9 May 1928 – 21 November 2020), or '''A. B. Lidiard''', was a British condensed matter physicist known for his research into defects in materials.<ref name=PM2021>{{Cite journal |last1=Grout |first1=Peter |last2=Catlow |first2=Richard |last3=Grimes |first3=Robin |date=2021-04-18 |title=Alan Lidiard Obituary |journal=Philosophical Magazine |language=en |volume=101 |issue=8 |pages=905–906 |doi=10.1080/14786435.2021.1906970 |bibcode=2021PMag..101..905G |s2cid=233205928 |issn=1478-6435|doi-access=free }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Lidiard |first=Alan B. |date=2003 |title=70 years of defect physical chemistry |url=https://xlink.rsc.org/?DOI=B301881B |journal=Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys. |language=en |volume=5 |issue=11 |pages=2161–2163 |doi=10.1039/B301881B |issn=1463-9076|url-access=subscription }}</ref>
== Education and career == Lidiard studied theoretical physics under Charles Coulson at King's College London, obtaining an MSc in 1950 and a PhD in 1952.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Obituaries 2020 |url=https://www.kcl.ac.uk/news/obituaries-2020 |access-date=2022-05-19 |website=www.kcl.ac.uk |language=en-GB}}</ref> He spent two years as a Fulbright scholar in the USA, first as a research assistant for Friedrich Seitz at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and then under Charles Kittel at University of California, Berkeley. He took up a research fellowship in the Theoretical Division at Atomic Energy Research Establishment in Harwell. Between 1957 and 1961, he was a Lecturer in Theoretical Physics at University of Reading. He returned to Harwell and set up the radiation damage theory group in the Theoretical Physics Division (TPD). Lidiard became the head of the TPD in 1966 until his retirement. Afterwards, he moved to the Department of Physics at University of Reading and the Department of Theoretical Chemistry at Oxford University.<ref name=PM2021></ref>
== Honors and awards == Lidiard was awarded the Guthrie Medal in 1988. He was a Fellow of the Institute of Physics and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry.<ref name=PM2021></ref>
== Personal life == Lidiard married three times. He has two daughters from his second marriage.<ref name=PM2021></ref>
== Bibliography == * {{Cite book |last1=Madelung |first1=O. |title=Electrical Conductivity II / Elektrische Leitungsphänomene II |date=1957 |first2=A. B. |last2=Lidiard |first3=J. M. |last3=Stevels |first4=E. |last4=Darmois |isbn=978-3-642-45859-0 |location=Berlin, Heidelberg |oclc=913622108}} * {{Cite book |last1=Allnatt |first1=A. R. |title=Atomic transport in solids |date=1993 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |first2=A. B. |last2=Lidiard |isbn=0-511-56390-6 |location=Cambridge, UK |oclc=852653597}}
== See also == * Marshall Stoneham * Richard Catlow
== References == {{reflist}}
{{Authority control}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Lidiard, Alan}} Category:1928 births Category:2020 deaths Category:Alumni of King's College London Category:Academics of the University of Reading Category:British physicists Category:Condensed matter physicists Category:Academics of the University of Oxford Category:People from Waltham St Lawrence