{{Short description|British particle physicist (born 1958)}} {{Use British English|date=August 2014}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2026}} {{Infobox scientist | birth_name = John Feather Wheater | name = John Wheater | image = John Wheater,.jpg | image_size = | caption = Wheater speaking at St Cross College, Oxford, 25 February 2017<ref name="youtube">{{cite web| url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_kO2wNw5jy4 |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211221/_kO2wNw5jy4 |archive-date=2021-12-21 |url-status=live| title=The Émigrés in Oxford Physics – HAPP Centre – Professor John Wheater | date=2 March 2017 | publisher=YouTube | author=St Cross College | author-link=St Cross College, Oxford | access-date=11 April 2020 }}{{cbignore}}</ref> | honorific suffix = <!-- {{postnominals|country=GBR|????|size=80%}} --> | birth_date = {{Birth year and age|1958}} | birth_place = London, England | field = Physics<br />Theoretical physics<br />Particle physics | education = | alma_mater = University of Oxford (BA, DPhil) | thesis_title = The Determination of the Electroweak Mixing Angle from Experiments | thesis_url = https://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.331171 | thesis_year = 1981 | doctoral_advisor = Christopher Llewellyn Smith | academic_advisors = | doctoral_students = Simon Catterall<ref name="academictree" /><br />Neil Ferguson<ref name=ndphil>{{cite thesis |website=bodleian.ox.ac.uk |first=Neil Morris |last=Ferguson |degree=DPhil |title=Continuous interpolations from crystalline to dynamically triangulated random surfaces |url=http://solo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/permalink/f/89vilt/oxfaleph015728374 |id={{EThOS|uk.bl.ethos.239308}} |oclc=556755377 |publisher=University of Oxford |year=1994 |access-date=17 April 2020 |archive-date=12 April 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200412155150/http://solo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/primo-explore/fulldisplay?docid=oxfaleph015728374&vid=SOLO&search_scope=LSCOP_ALL&tab=local&lang=en_US&context=L |url-status=dead }}</ref> | notable_students = | influences = | influenced = | awards = <!--only include prizes notable enough to have dedicated wiki pages-->Maxwell Medal and Prize<ref name="maxwell" /> (1993) | work_institution = Durham University<br />University of Oxford | website = {{URL|https://www2.physics.ox.ac.uk/contacts/people/wheater}} }}
'''John Feather Wheater''' (born 1958, in London) is a British physicist. He is a professor at the University of Oxford, specializing in particle physics.<ref name="cv">{{cite web| url=https://www2.physics.ox.ac.uk/sites/default/files/2011-08-04/john_wheater_cv_2015_pdf_96715.pdf | title=Curriculum Vitae: John Feather WHEATER | publisher=Department of Physics, University of Oxford | first=John F. | last=Wheater | date=2015 | access-date=10 April 2020 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web| url=https://www2.physics.ox.ac.uk/contacts/people/wheater | title=John Wheater | publisher=Department of Physics, University of Oxford | location=UK | access-date=20 April 2020 }}</ref><ref name="univ">{{cite web| url=https://www.univ.ox.ac.uk/academics/john-wheater/ | title=John Wheater | publisher=University College, Oxford | location=UK | access-date=20 April 2020 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web| url=https://www-thphys.physics.ox.ac.uk/people/JohnWheater/ | title=John Wheater | publisher=Theoretical Physics, University of Oxford | location=UK | access-date=20 April 2020 }}</ref>
==Education== Wheater was educated at St Paul's School, London and the University of Oxford, where he read Physics at Christ Church from 1976 to 1979, graduating with a first class degree and winning the Scott Prize for Physics.<ref name="cv" /> He undertook a DPhil degree on electroweak radiative corrections, supervised by Chris Llewellyn Smith, from 1979 to 1981.<ref name="academictree">{{cite web| url=https://academictree.org/physics/peopleinfo.php?pid=453632 | title=John F. Wheater | work=Physics Tree | publisher=Academic Tree | access-date=10 April 2020 }}</ref>
==Career and research== Wheater was a Junior Research Fellow in theoretical physics at Christ Church during 1981–84. In 1984–85, he was a lecturer in theoretical particle physics at Durham University.
In 1985, Wheater joined the academic staff of the Department of Physics at Oxford University, initially as a lecturer. He was also a fellow of University College, Oxford, from 1985 until 2015.<ref name="univ" /> During 1990 and later in 2003–4, he was on sabbatical leave spent at the Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen, Denmark. In 1993, he was awarded the Maxwell Medal and Prize by the Institute of Physics.<ref name="maxwell">{{cite web| url=https://www.iop.org/about/awards/early-career/maxwell/medallists/page_38660.html | title=Maxwell medal recipients | publisher=Institute of Physics | access-date=11 April 2020 }}</ref> He was Head of the Physics Department between 2010 and 2018. In 2015, he was appointed as Professor of Physics. Wheater leads the Particle Theory Group.<ref>{{cite web| url=https://www2.physics.ox.ac.uk/research/particle-theory | title=Particle Theory | publisher=Department of Physics, University of Oxford | location=UK | access-date=10 April 2020 }}</ref>
[[File:Beecroft Bldg Oxford.jpg|thumb|The Beecroft Building, part of the Department of Physics, opened in 2018 under Wheater's leadership]] During Wheater's term as Head of the Department of Physics, the new Beecroft Building in the department was initiated.<ref>{{cite web| url=https://www.planetpartitioning.co.uk/planet-partitioning-secure-contract-for-beecroft-building/ | title=Planet Partitioning secure contract for University of Oxford's the Beecroft building | publisher=Planet Partitioning | location=UK | date=14 March 2017 | access-date=10 April 2020 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web| url=https://www.hawkinsbrown.com/projects/the-beecroft-building | title=Beecroft Building, University of Oxford | publisher=Hawkins\Brown | date=2020 | access-date=10 April 2020 }}</ref> It was opened in 2018 by Sir Tim Berners-Lee (who formerly studied physics at Oxford),<ref name="dop">{{cite web| url=https://www2.physics.ox.ac.uk/the-beecroft-building | title=The Beecroft Building | publisher=Department of Physics, University of Oxford | location=UK | access-date=11 April 2020 }}</ref> in the presence of Wheater as Head of department, Professor Louise Richardson (Vice-Chancellor of Oxford), Chris Patten (Chancellor of Oxford), and Adrian Beecroft (part-funder of the building).<ref>{{cite web| url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OsuMz-Ep7gQ |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211221/OsuMz-Ep7gQ |archive-date=2021-12-21 |url-status=live| title=The opening of Oxford's Beecroft Building | author=University of Oxford | author-link=University of Oxford | publisher=YouTube | date=27 September 2018 | access-date=11 April 2020 }}{{cbignore}}</ref>
In 2018–19, Wheater was invited to be a visiting professor at the QMATH-center in the Department of Mathematical Sciences at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark.<ref>{{cite web| url=https://www.math.ku.dk/english/about/news/new-names/john-wheater-qmath/ | title=Professor John Wheater, guest at QMATH | publisher=Department of Mathematical Sciences, University of Copenhagen | location=Denmark | date=21 December 2018 | access-date=11 April 2020 }}</ref><ref name="orcid">{{cite web| url=https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1557-7091 | title=John Wheater | publisher=ORCID | access-date=10 April 2020 }}</ref>
Wheater's former doctoral students include Neil Ferguson,<ref name=ndphil/> who initially studied physics at Oxford University, but later became an epidemiologist and professor of mathematical biology at Imperial College London and was an influential scientist in the UK government strategy for the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom.<ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.ft.com/content/7e56cf84-6a9e-11ea-a3c9-1fe6fedcca75 | title=Neil Ferguson, a virus modeller sounds the alarm | newspaper=Financial Times | first=Pilita | last=Clark | date=20 March 2020 | access-date=10 April 2020 }}</ref>
===Selected publications=== Wheater publications<ref name="cv" /><ref>{{cite web| url=https://www2.physics.ox.ac.uk/contacts/people/wheater/publications | title=John Wheater – publications | publisher=Department of Physics, University of Oxford | location=UK | access-date=10 April 2020 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web| url=https://arxiv.org/a/wheater_j_1.html | title=John F. Wheater's articles on arXiv | work=arXiv | publisher=Cornell University | location=USA | access-date=10 April 2020 }}</ref> include:
* Low-energy predictions from grand unified theories<ref>C.H.L. Smith, G.G. Ross, J.F. Wheater, Low-energy predictions from grand unified theories. ''Nuclear Physics B'', 1981. {{doi|10.1016/0550-3213(81)90391-6}}</ref> * C.H.L. Smith, J.F. Wheater, Electroweak radiative corrections and the value of sin2θW. ''Physics Letters B'', 1981. * J.F. Wheater, C.H.L. Smith, Electroweak radiative corrections to neutrino and electron scattering and the value of sin2θW. ''Nuclear Physics B'', 1982. * I.I. Kogan, N.E. Mavromatos, J.F. Wheater, D-brane recoil and logarithmic operators. ''Physics Letters B'', 1996. * P. Austing, J.F. Wheater, Convergent Yang-Mills matrix theories. ''Journal of High Energy Physics'', 2001.
==Personal life== Wheater is married with two daughters.<ref name="cv" />
==References== {{Reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Wheater, John}} Category:1958 births Category:Living people Category:Alumni of Christ Church, Oxford Category:Fellows of Christ Church, Oxford Category:Academics of Durham University Category:Fellows of University College, Oxford Category:20th-century British physicists Category:21st-century British physicists Category:British theoretical physicists Category:British particle physicists Category:Maxwell Medal and Prize recipients Category:Department of Physics, University of Oxford