{{short description|British physicist (1915–2006)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=December 2022}} {{Use British English|date=June 2013}} {{Infobox scientist |name = Brebis Bleaney |image = <!--(filename only)--> |image_size = |caption = |honorific_suffix = {{post-nominals|country=GBR|CBE|FRS|size=100}} |birth_date = {{birth date|1915|6|6|df=y}} |birth_place = 423 King's Road, Chelsea, London, England |death_date = {{death date and age|2006|11|4|1915|6|6|df=y}} |death_place = Garford House, Garford Road, Oxford, England |citizenship = |fields = Low-temperature physics |workplaces = Clarendon Laboratory, University of Oxford |education = Westminster City School |alma_mater = St John's College, University of Oxford (MA, DPhil) |doctoral_advisor = Francis Simon<ref name="bphd"/> |academic_advisors = | thesis_title = Some properties of matter at very low temperatures | thesis_url = https://solo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/permalink/f/n28kah/oxfaleph020119206 | thesis_year = 1939 |doctoral_students = Geoffrey Copland<ref name=PhDg>{{cite thesis| degree=DPhil | publisher=University of Oxford | location=UK | url=https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:367f6af5-ba8c-42ab-8635-58ac4c402d5d | title=Some hyperfine interactions in solids | first=Geoffrey Malcolm | last=Copland|date=1967|id={{EThOS|uk.bl.ethos.732014}} | work=Oxford University Research Archive | oclc=1063609593 }}</ref> |notable_students = |known_for = Electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) |influences = |influenced = |awards = Hughes Medal (1962) <br /> Holdwek Medal (1984) |signature = <!--(filename only)--> |footnotes = }} '''Brebis Bleaney''' {{post-nominals|country=GBR|CBE|FRS}} (6 June 1915 – 4 November 2006)<ref name=frs>{{Cite journal| last=Elliott | first=Roger | author-link=Roger James Elliott | doi=10.1098/rsbm.2008.0018 | doi-access=free| title=Brebis Bleaney. 6 June 1915 – 4 November 2006 | journal=Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society | volume=55 | pages=3–11 | year=2009 | s2cid=72415129 }}</ref> was a British physicist.<ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1535534/Professor-Brebis-Bleaney.html | title=Professor Brebis Bleaney | newspaper=The Daily Telegraph | location=UK | date=30 November 2006 }}</ref><ref name="whoswho">{{Who's Who | author=Anon| title=Bleaney, Prof. Brebis | id=U7843 | year=2007 | doi=10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.U7843 | edition=online | publisher=Oxford University Press | location=Oxford}}</ref><ref>{{cite web| url=http://www.physics.ox.ac.uk/news/BB1.htm | title=Professor Brebis Bleaney, FRS, (1915–2006) | publisher=Department of Physics, University of Oxford | location=UK | work=Archive.org | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070214004430/http://www.physics.ox.ac.uk/news/BB1.htm | accessdate=14 February 2007 | archive-date=14 February 2007 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web| url=http://kfti.knc.ru/eng/zavoisky/awholders.html | title=Award Holders | publisher=Zavoisky Physical Technical Institute | location=Russia | work=Archive.org | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070629182441/http://kfti.knc.ru/eng/zavoisky/awholders.html | accessdate=29 June 2007 | archive-date=29 June 2007 }}</ref> His main area of research was the use of microwave techniques to study the magnetic properties of solids. He was head of the Clarendon Laboratory at the University of Oxford from 1957 to 1977. In 1992, Bleaney received the International Zavoisky Award "for his contribution to the theory and practice of electron paramagnetic resonance of transition ions in crystals."
==Education== Brebis Bleaney was born at 423 King's Road, Chelsea, London, the second son of Frederick Bleaney, a house painter, and Eva Johanne Petersen, born in Denmark. He attended the Cook's Ground School, Chelsea<ref>{{Cite web| title=Planning Statement for the site at Former Jamahiriya School, Glebe Place, Chelsea | url= https://www.rbkc.gov.uk/idoxWAM/doc/Other-72489.pdf?extension=.pdf&id=72489&location=VOLUME1&contentType=application/pdf&pageCount=33 | date=April 2006 }}</ref> from where he obtained a scholarship to Westminster City School. In 1933, he obtained an open scholarship in science to St John's College, Oxford, to read physics. He graduated with first-class honours in 1937. Bleaney went on to do research supervised by Francis Simon,<ref>{{Cite journal| last1=Bleaney | first1=B. | last2=Simon | first2=F. | title=The vapour pressure curve of liquid helium below the λ-point | journal=Trans. Faraday Soc. | volume=35 | pages=1205–1214 | date=1939 | doi=10.1039/TF9393501205 }}</ref> obtaining a DPhil degree in 1939.<ref name=bphd>{{cite thesis|degree=DPhil| url=https://solo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/permalink/f/n28kah/oxfaleph020119206|publisher=University of Oxford| website=ox.ac.uk|first=Brebis |last=Bleaney|year=1939 | title=Some properties of matter at very low temperatures }}</ref>
==Career and research== After his DPhil degree, Bleaney moved into the new Clarendon Laboratory but then came the war and, like so many other scientists, he was assigned to war-related work. In Bleaney's case, he was drafted into the Oxford-based Admiralty team which worked on the development of microwave techniques for radar. He made many contributions to this programme, particularly in the development of klystrons.<ref>{{Cite news| title=Obituary: Brebis Bleaney| newspaper=The Guardian | first=Roger | last=Elliott | date=8 January 2007 | url=https://www.theguardian.com/obituaries/story/0,,1984813,00.html }}</ref>
In 1943, the group was visited by Jerrold R. Zacharias from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) who saw that their K-band reflex klystron was much easier to manufacture and more reliable than the one developed by Bell Labs. A visit by Bleaney to Waltham, Massachusetts resulted in Raytheon manufacturing them on a large scale.<ref name=frs/>
In 1945, Bleaney was appointed as a university lecturer in Oxford, and then a fellow of St John's College in 1947.<ref name=odnb>{{Cite ODNB| id=97490 | title=Bleaney, Brebis}}</ref> His group's research into resonances in a wide range of paramagnetic substances at very low temperatures resulted in Oxford becoming "the major world centre for research in EPR".<ref>{{Cite news| last=Hayes | first=W. | title=Obituaries: Professor Brebis Bleaney | newspaper=The Independent|location=London |date=30 November 2006 | url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/professor-brebis-bleaney-426344.html }}</ref>
==Awards and honours== In 1950, Bleaney was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS). In 1956, he was appointed Dr Lee's Professor of Experimental Philosophy at Oxford, succeeding Francis Simon who had died suddenly after only a short time in the post. This unfortunately involved a lot of administrative work, and Bleaney stood down as soon as he felt he had played his part.<ref name="frs"/> He was appointed Commander of the British Empire (CBE) in 1965 and became a corresponding member of the French Academy of Sciences in 1974. He won the Royal Society's Hughes Medal in 1962 and the European Holdwek Medal in 1984.
Bleaney was considered for the Nobel Prize for Physics regarding two separate achievements but never received the award.<ref>{{cite web| url=https://www2.physics.ox.ac.uk/blog/alumni/2021/03/16/brebis-bleaney-his-name-and-his-nobel-near-misses | title=Brebis Bleaney: His name, and his Nobel near-misses | date=16 March 2021 | first=Timothy | last=Baker | publisher=Department of Physics, University of Oxford | location=UK | accessdate=29 October 2022 }}</ref> However, there is an annual '''Brebis Bleaney Memorial Lecture''' at the Department of Physics in Oxford, established in 2019 and endowed by his student Professor Michael Baker (1930–2017).<ref>{{cite web| url=https://www2.physics.ox.ac.uk/blog/alumni/2019/03/25/the-inaugural-brebis-bleaney-memorial-lecture | title=The Inaugural Brebis Bleaney Memorial Lecture | date=25 March 2019 | first=Valeria | last=Crowder | publisher=Department of Physics, University of Oxford | location=UK | accessdate=29 October 2022 }}</ref>
==Personal life== In 1949, Brebis Bleaney married Betty Isabelle Plumpton at St Nicolas Church, Guildford.<ref>{{Cite news|title=They Were Married. The "Tatler's" Review: Bleaney–Pumpton | magazine=The Tatler | page=28 | date=30 March 1949}}</ref> Betty Plumpton had been his student; they published a book together: ''Electricity and Magnetism'', in two volumes (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1957). The couple had two children, Michael Bleaney, now a noted economist, and Carol Heather Bleaney, who was at SOAS University of London and has published widely on the Middle East.{{citation needed|date=October 2022}}
Bleaney died on 4 November 2006 at his home, Garford House, Garford Road, Oxford, and was cremated at Oxford crematorium.<ref name=odnb/>
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== * [https://www.nndb.com/people/210/000167706/ Brebis Bleaney] on NNDB * {{cite news| url=https://www.thetimes.com/comment/register/article/professor-brebis-bleaney-ff8gbw7nzt7 | title=Professor Brebis Bleaney | newspaper=The Times | date=6 December 2006 }}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Bleaney, Brebis}} Category:1915 births Category:2006 deaths Category:People from Chelsea, London Category:Scientists from London Category:Alumni of St John's College, Oxford Category:Fellows of St John's College, Oxford Category:English physicists Category:British fellows of the Royal Society Category:Dr Lee's Professors of Experimental Philosophy Category:Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Category:Members of the French Academy of Sciences Category:King's Road, Chelsea, London Category:People educated at Westminster City School