{{Short description|British nuclear physicist (1922–2016)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=January 2025}} {{Use British English|date=August 2016}} {{Infobox scientist | name = Denys Wilkinson | image = | birth_name = Denys Haigh Wilkinson | birth_date = {{birth date|df=yes|1922|09|5}} | birth_place = Leeds, England | death_date = {{death date and age |df=yes|2016|04|22|1922|09|5}} | death_place = | fields = Nuclear physics | workplaces = | alma_mater = Jesus College, Cambridge | doctoral_students = Samar Mubarakmand }}
[[File:Denys Wilkinson Building, University of Oxford - Banbury Road.jpg|200px|thumb|right|The Denys Wilkinson Building, part of the Department of Physics at Oxford University.]]
'''Sir Denys Haigh Wilkinson''' FRS (5 September 1922 – 22 April 2016) was a British nuclear physicist.
== Life == Wilkinson was born on 5 September 1922 in Leeds, Yorkshire and educated at Loughborough Grammar School and Jesus College, Cambridge, graduating in 1943.<ref name="janus">{{cite web|title=The Papers of Sir Denys Wilkinson|url=https://archivesearch.lib.cam.ac.uk/repositories/9/resources/1899|url-status=live|website=Archivesearch|publisher=Churchill Archives Centre, Churchill College, Cambridge University|accessdate=2016-04-30|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211004225424/https://archivesearch.lib.cam.ac.uk/repositories/9/resources/1899 |archive-date=4 October 2021 }}</ref>
After wartime work on the British and Canadian Atomic Energy projects, he returned to Cambridge in 1946, where he was awarded a PhD in 1947 and held posts culminating as Reader in Nuclear Physics from 1956{{ndash}}1957.<ref name="janus" /> From 1944 to 1959, he was a fellow of Jesus College, Cambridge.<ref name="janus" />
He was made a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1956.<ref name="roysoc">{{cite web|title=Denys Wilkinson|url=https://royalsociety.org/people/denys-wilkinson-12530/|publisher=The Royal Society|accessdate=2016-04-30}}</ref>
In 1957 he went to the University of Oxford as Professor of Nuclear Physics, and won the Fernand Holweck Medal and Prize the same year.<ref name="janus" /> In 1959 he became Professor of Experimental Physics at Oxford, and from 1962 to 1976 was head of the Department of Nuclear Physics.<ref name="janus" /> While he held his professorship at Oxford, he was a Fellow (there called a Student) of Christ Church, Oxford.<ref name="janus" /> He was knighted in 1974.<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=46430|page=12745|date=13 December 1974}}</ref> In 2001 the Nuclear Physics Laboratory at the University of Oxford, which he had helped to create, was renamed the Denys Wilkinson Building in his honour.<ref>[http://www.physics.ox.ac.uk/pp/dwb/dwb.htm Oxford Physics – Denys Wilkinson Building] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110927115521/http://www.physics.ox.ac.uk/pp/dwb/dwb.htm |date=27 September 2011 }}</ref>
Wilkinson served as chairman for both the Physics III Committee<ref>{{cite report|title=80th Meeting of Scientific Policy Committee : Minutes |url=https://cds.cern.ch/record/1124526 |publisher=CERN |docket=CERN/SPC/0361 |access-date=29 September 2017}}</ref> and the Electronic Experiments Committee at CERN.<ref>{{cite report|title=82nd Meeting of Scientific Policy Committee : Draft minutes |url=https://cds.cern.ch/record/59215 |publisher=CERN |docket=CERN/SPC/0366/Draft |access-date=29 September 2017}}</ref>
On leaving Oxford, he served as vice-chancellor of the University of Sussex from 1976 to 1987.<ref name="janus" /><ref name="sussexobit" /> After his retirement, he was appointed emeritus professor of physics at Sussex in 1987.<ref name="janus" />
Wilkinson's work in nuclear physics included investigation of the properties of nuclei with low numbers of nucleons.<ref name="roysoc" /> He was amongst the first to experimentally test rules relating to isospin.<ref name="roysoc" /> He also applied concepts from physics to the study of bird navigation.<ref name="roysoc" />
He is also notable for the invention of the Wilkinson analog-to-digital converter, to support his experimental work.<ref name="roysoc" />
He died on 22 April 2016 at the age of 93.<ref name="sussexobit">{{cite web|title=University of Sussex's third Vice-Chancellor Sir Denys Wilkinson passes away on 22 April 2016|url=http://m.sussex.ac.uk/broadcast/read/35377|publisher=University of Sussex|accessdate=2016-04-30}}{{Dead link|date=January 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>
His papers are held at the Churchill Archives Centre in Cambridge.<ref name="janus" /> He was an Honorary Fellow of Jesus College, Cambridge from 1961, and an Honorary Student of Christ Church, Oxford from 1979.<ref name="janus" /> He won the Hughes Medal of the Royal Society in 1965 and the Royal Medal in 1980.<ref name="roysoc" /><ref>{{cite web|title=Award Winners [of Hughes Medal]|url=https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1dsunM9ukGLgaW3HdG9cvJ_QKd7pWjGI0qi_fCb1ROD4/pubhtml?gid=574087718&single=true|publisher=Royal Society|accessdate=2016-04-30}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Award Winners [of Royal Medal]|url=https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1dsunM9ukGLgaW3HdG9cvJ_QKd7pWjGI0qi_fCb1ROD4/pubhtml?gid=1640032608&single=true|publisher=Royal Society|accessdate=2016-04-30}}</ref> In 1980 he received an honorary doctorate from the Faculty of Mathematics and Science at Uppsala University, Sweden.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.uu.se/en/about-uu/traditions/prizes/honorary-doctorates/|title = Honorary doctorates – Uppsala University, Sweden| date=9 June 2023 }}</ref>
== References == {{Reflist}}
== External links == * {{cite ODNB|doi=10.1093/odnb/9780198614128.013.112080|chapter=Sir Denys Haigh Wilkinson|title=Oxford Dictionary of National Biography|first=Roger|last=Cashmore|year=2020}} * [http://artuk.org/discover/artworks/sir-denys-wilkinson-72973 Portrait] (1990), by Keith Clements, held at the University of Sussex
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Wilkinson, Denys Haigh}} Category:1922 births Category:2016 deaths Category:People educated at Loughborough Grammar School Category:Scientists from Leeds Category:Alumni of Jesus College, Cambridge Category:English nuclear physicists Category:British nuclear physicists Category:Fellows of Christ Church, Oxford Category:Fellows of Jesus College, Cambridge Category:Honorary Fellows of the Institute of Physics Category:Presidents of the Institute of Physics Category:Academics of the University of Sussex Category:Knights Bachelor Category:Royal Medal winners Category:People associated with CERN Category:British expatriates in Canada Category:British fellows of the Royal Society