{{Short description|Scottish physicist}} {{Other people|William Cochran}} {{Use dmy dates|date=May 2017}} {{Use British English|date=May 2017}} {{Infobox scientist |name = William Cochran |honorific_suffix = {{postnominals|country=GBR|size=100%||FRS|FRSE}} |alma_mater = University of Edinburgh |workplaces = {{ubl|University of Edinburgh|University of Cambridge}} |awards = {{plainlist}} {{Awards|award=Hughes Medal|year=1978}} * {{Awards|award=Howard N. Potts Medal|year=1985}} {{endplainlist}} |known_for = X-ray crystallography |fields = Crystallography |doctoral_advisor = Arnold Beevers |doctoral_students = {{ubl|Roger Cowley|Richard Nelmes}} }}
'''William (Bill) Cochran''' {{post-nominals|country=GBR|FRS|FRSE}} (30 July 1922 – 28 August 2003)<ref>{{Cite journal | last1 = Woolfson | first1 = Michael Mark | author-link = Michael Woolfson | doi = 10.1098/rsbm.2005.0005 | doi-access = free| title = William Cochran. 30 July 1922 – 28 August 2003: Elected FRS 1962 | journal = Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society | volume = 51 | pages = 67 | year = 2005 }}</ref> was a Scottish physicist. He is best known for "pioneering contributions to the science of X-ray crystallography", for which he was awarded the Hughes Medal in 1978.<ref name="franklin">{{cite web |title=William Cochran |url=https://www.fi.edu/en/awards/laureates/william-cochran |website=The Franklin Institute |access-date=12 December 2023}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|journal= Nature |page=677 |year = 1979|doi=10.1038/277677a0|volume=277|issue=5698 |title=Announcements|bibcode=1979Natur.277..677. |s2cid=216085372 }}</ref>
==Biography== Bill Cochran was born in Scotland and educated at Boroughmuir High School in Edinburgh. He studied physics at the University of Edinburgh. He completed his PhD under Arnold Beevers in the Chemistry Department in X-ray crystallography of sucrose using isomorphous replacement. He moved to the University of Cambridge to work with Lawrence Bragg, and obtained tenure in 1951. He realised that isomorphous replacement was the key to solving protein structures. With Francis Crick, he invented methods for deducing helical patterns from crystallographic data, which ultimately led to the solution of the structure of DNA.{{citation needed|date=January 2020}}
Cochran went on to study neutron diffraction with Bertram Brockhouse and used lattice dynamics{{clarify|date=March 2014}} and to explain the phenomenon of ferroelectricity in terms of lattice instabilities. This was tested by his students Stuart Pawley, Roger Cowley and Richard Nelmes. This idea was also advanced around the same time by Philip Anderson, but Cochran credits Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman and Negundagi with the original idea. Cochran's basic idea is that on cooling from a high temperature state, symmetry breaking can occur.
Cochran returned to Edinburgh in 1964 as Chair of Natural Philosophy. His monograph ''The Dynamics of Atoms in Crystals'' was published in 1973.<ref>{{cite journal|doi=10.1063/1.3128993|title=Review of ''The Dynamics of Atoms in Crystals'' by W. Cochran|year=1974|last=Axe|first=John D.|journal=Physics Today|volume=27|issue=11|pages=59–61|bibcode=1974PhT....27k..59C}}</ref> He became Head of Department in 1975 and was instrumental in the merger of the Natural Philosophy and Mathematical Physics departments. He was vice-principal from 1984 to 1987.
Cochran also received an Honorary Doctorate from Heriot-Watt University in 1992.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www1.hw.ac.uk/graduation/honorary-graduates.htm|title=Heriot-Watt University Edinburgh: Honorary Graduates|last=|website=www1.hw.ac.uk|access-date=2016-04-05|archive-date=18 April 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160418163907/http://www1.hw.ac.uk/graduation/honorary-graduates.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref>
He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in March 1962 and won their Hughes Medal in 1978.<ref>{{cite web | url= http://www2.royalsociety.org/DServe/dserve.exe?dsqIni=Dserve.ini&dsqApp=Archive&dsqCmd=Show.tcl&dsqDb=Persons&dsqPos=0&dsqSearch=%28Surname%3D%27cochran%27%29| title = Library and Archive Catalogue| publisher= Royal Society|access-date= 23 December 2010}}</ref> He won the Howard N. Potts Medal of the Franklin Institute in 1985.<ref name="franklin"/>
Cochran died from motor neurone disease in 2003.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://odnb2.pubfactory.com/articles/92/92570-article.html|title=William Cochran Obituary 2003}}</ref>
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== * [https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rsbm.2005.0005 Biography] from the Royal Society
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Cochran, William}} Category:1922 births Category:2003 deaths Category:Alumni of the University of Edinburgh Category:Physicists at the University of Cambridge Category:Academics of the University of Edinburgh Category:British crystallographers Category:Scottish physicists Category:Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Category:Deaths from motor neuron disease in the United Kingdom Category:Howard N. Potts Medal recipients Category:People educated at Boroughmuir High School Category:British fellows of the Royal Society