{{short description|British physicist and academic (1941–1992)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=February 2025}} {{Use British English|date=April 2017}} '''Peter George LeComber''' (or '''Le Comber''') FRS FRSE (19 February 1941 – 9 September 1992) was a British solid-state physicist and academic. With ten patents to his name, he is in part responsible for the development of items such as flat-screen televisions and solar power cells.<ref name="fells">{{Cite book |url=https://www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/biographical_index/fells_indexp1.pdf |title=Former Fellows of The Royal Society of Edinburgh, 1783–2002: Part 1 (A–J) |author=C D Waterston |author2=A Macmillan Shearer |publisher=Royal Society of Edinburgh |isbn=090219884X |date=July 2006 |access-date=18 September 2015 |archive-date=24 January 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130124115814/http://www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/biographical_index/fells_indexp1.pdf |url-status=dead}}</ref> He worked closely with Walter Eric Spear FRS in the development of Amorphous silicon and the creation of solar panels.
==Life== He was born in Ilford on 19 February 1941.<ref name="fells" /> His father was largely absent during his early years, serving in the Middle East during the Second World War. He attended Becontree Heath Primary School. Following a scholarship at age eleven,<ref>{{Cite journal |title=Peter George Lecomber, 19 February 1941 – 9 September 1992 |journal=Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society |date=1994 |language=en |volume=39 |pages=213–225 |doi=10.1098/rsbm.1994.0013 |issn=0080-4606|doi-access=free }}</ref> he studied at South East Essex Technical College and then Leicester University, graduating BSc in 1962 and then undertaking a Ph.D. From 1965 to 1967, he conducted studies at Purdue University in Indiana, USA. In 1967 he returned to Leicester University as a lecturer in physics.<ref name="fells"/>
He met Walter Eric Spear whilst working in Leicester and together they went to the Carnegie Laboratory of Physics, Dundee University in 1969 to establish the study of non-crystalline solids.<ref>{{Cite journal|jstor = 770178|title = Peter George Lecomber. 19 February 1941 – 9 September 1992|journal = Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society|volume = 39|pages = 215–225|last1 = Spear|first1 = W. E|year = 1994|doi=10.1098/rsbm.1994.0013|doi-access = free}}</ref><ref name="Notable University Figures">{{cite web|title =Notable University Figures (2) Professor Walter E. Spear|date=29 July 2011|url=http://www.archives-records-artefacts.blogspot.com/2011/07/notable-university-figures-2-professor.html|publisher=Archives, Records and Artefacts at the University of Dundee|accessdate=2 February 2016}}</ref> In 1984 he was the recipient of the Duddell Medal.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.iop.org/about/awards/subject/gabor/page_38544.html |title=The Gabor medal and prize |access-date=29 October 2015 |archive-date=24 September 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924051247/http://www.iop.org/about/awards/subject/gabor/page_38544.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> In 1984, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and in 1992, shortly before his death, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of London.<ref name="fells"/>
In 1986, Dundee University created a personal chair in Solid State Physics for him, placing the university in a critical position in the development of semiconductors.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.dundee.ac.uk/museum/exhibitions/madetomeasure/scientists/|title = Notable Scientists at Dundee University : Museum : University of Dundee}}</ref>
He died of a heart attack on 9 September 1992, aged 51, whilst on a trip to Switzerland to celebrate his thirtieth wedding anniversary. As a close personal friend, Spear wrote his obituary. Spear's own research career was effectively ended by LeComber's sudden death.<ref name="Notable University Figures"/>
==Family== He married Joy Smith around 1963.<ref name="fells" />
==References== {{reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:LeComber, Peter}} Category:1941 births Category:1992 deaths Category:Alumni of the University of Leicester Category:Academics of the University of Leicester Category:20th-century British inventors Category:Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Category:Academics of the University of Dundee Category:20th-century British physicists Category:British fellows of the Royal Society