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Barrow grammar school for boys, originally destined to follow his father – an obstetrician and gynaecologist – into the medical profession, he was stimulated instead by the school's inspirational physics teaching. He always spoke with pride of the three fellows of the Royal Society whom the school produced; read physics at Bristol University, where he graduated with a BSc in 1961, and a PhD in 1964.
Career:
Marshall Stoneham was always interested in what he called 'physics in action'. He represented all that is best in British physics. Throughout a long research career, first with the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA), and latterly at University College London, he pioneered the application of modern solid-state theory, which explains the properties of solid materials – especially electrical conduction in semiconductors and metals – to problems of real industrial interest. In the process, he added immeasurably to our fundamental knowledge of materials science. He wrote a number of highly influential books, including the definitive Theory of Defects in Solids (1975), and was an inspiration to a generation of physicists – both theoreticians and experimentalists.
Marshall was a theoretical condensed-matter physicist, whose work covered an immense range. On the applied side, it included corrosion, radioactive waste, ceramics, diffusion, the reliability of non-destructive inspection (methods of testing materials or equipment without causing any damage or affecting their performance), passivation (treatment to improve resistance to corrosion) and radiation-damage processes. In terms of basic research, he worked on colour centres, polarons, muons and muonium, quantum diffusion and tunnelling, as well as electronic coherence in quantum dots and quantum computing.
He then joined the theoretical physics division at Harwell, Oxfordshire, at that time the major research laboratory of the UKAEA. He led a group on the theory of defects and radiation damage especially in non-metals, gaining an impressive international reputation for this fundamental research. Alan Lidiard, then head of the division, said: "He exemplified the influence which talented theoreticians can have on practical experimental and engineering programmes, for example the development of technology for the in-service inspection of gas pipelines and later oil platforms."
In 1989, Marshall was appointed head of the materials science and metallurgy division with more than 200 staff. This division was pursuing new areas of application for which he was the ideal leader. Topics ranged from boron neutron capture therapy as a possible cancer treatment to nuclear reactor safety. In 1990, he became director of research for AEA Industrial Technology, and shortly after chief scientist of AEA Technology.
In 1995, Marshall accepted an invitation to move to UCL as the first Massey professor of physics, becoming director of the university's interdepartmental Centre for Materials Research. He also joined the newly established Condensed Matter and Materials Physics Group in the department of physics and astronomy, and was instrumental in building it into a major international centre that later gave rise to the London Centre for Nanotechnology.
He became involved with a wide range of materials-related work within UCL, and personally developed projects in areas as diverse as minimally invasive dentistry, odour recognition and diamond film growth (depositing thin films of diamond on the surface of other materials to enhance their physical properties). Although he retired in 2005, he became an emeritus professor at UCL and remained an active researcher, with a particular interest in quantum information science. He had a long-term vision of scientific progress, believing that the 19th century was dominated by the discovery of the atom and the development of the chemical industry; and the 20th century by the discovery of the electron and the development of the electronics industry, while the 21st century would be the age when quantum physics became the familiar tool of the engineer.
Marshall was always interested in what he called "physics in action", the application of fundamental science to solve technological challenges. In 1997, he and his wife, Doreen, who is also a physicist, founded Oxford Authentication Ltd, a small firm which uses thermo-luminescence techniques to establish the provenance of art ceramics.
Outside his research career, he was a keen musician and musicologist. He was a gifted player of the French horn, played with orchestras and was a member of a long-standing wind chamber group for more than 40 years. His prizewinning Wind Ensemble Sourcebook (1997) was the fruit of many years' research in libraries around the world, often visited while travelling to scientific conferences or to meet international collaborators.
His numerous honours included fellowships of the Institute of Physics (IOP), the American Physical Society and (in 1989) the Royal Society, whose Zeneca prize lecture he gave in 1995. He was awarded the Guthrie medal and prize of the Institute of Physics in 2006. Elected Fellow of Wolfson College Oxford (1989);
Marshall had a long association with the IOP, having been a director of Institute of Physics Publishing from 1987 to 2001, spending the last four of those years as chairman of the board and vice-president for publishing. He was editor-in-chief of the institute's Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter. He was elected president of the institute in 2010, and made a major contribution during his year as president-elect and his comparatively short time as president.
Died aged 70 following complications after surgery, |