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Authorised form of namePickett; George Richard; physicist
NationalityBritish
Date of birth10 April 1939
Place of deathLancaster, Lancashire, England
Date of death21 July 2024
DatesAndPlacesFuneral: Beetham Hall Crematorium
OccupationPhyicist
Research fieldQuantum physics
Low temperature physics
Superfluidity
Nuclear refrigiration
Nuclear physics
Physics
ActivityEducation:
Bedford Modern School (1948-1958); Magdalen College, Oxford (BA 1962; DPhil)
Career:
Professor of low temperature physics, Lancaster University (1970-2024), starting as Senior Visiting Fellow; Reader (1983); personal chair (1988); and subsequently Distinguished Professor.
Memberships:
Finnish Academy of Science and Letters
Russian Academy of Sciences
Awards/Medals:
Simon Memorial Prize 1998
Membership categoryFellow
Date of election15/05/1997
Age at election58
RSActivityCommitees and Panels:
Sectional Committee 2: Astronomy and physics 2000-2003
RelationshipsSpouse: Deborah Pickett.
Children: Two daughters, Elizabeth & Catherine.
PublishedWorksRCN 52149
OtherInforenowned for his pioneering development of the nuclear refrigeration technique and its application to the investigation of superfluid helium-3 in the ballistic excitation regime below 200 microkelvins. Early heat capacity measurements at Oxford were followed at Helsinki by investigations of rare earth hyperfine heat capacities as well as precision measurements of the lambda point and phase separation anomalies in liquid helium isotopic mixtures. At Lancaster, George and Tony Guénault developed a novel form of nuclear refrigeration, using finely divided copper immersed in liquid helium-3 to overcome thermal boundary resistances. This led, in due course, to the lowest temperatures yet achieved in pure helium-3, in isotopic solutions, and in metals. The vibrating wire viscometer was ingeniously exploited to discover new nonlinear effects in superfluid helium-3 associated with the ballistic propagation of excitations, and satisfying explanations of the phenomena were devised.
Was fluent in several Scandinavian and eastern European languages.
SourceReferences:
B Bleaney and O V Lounasmaa, 'Nuclear orientation and nuclear cooling experiments in Oxford and Helsinki. Part 2. Progress from 1945 to 1970' in NR 2003 vol 57 pp 323 - 330
B Bleaney and O V Lounasmaa, 'Nuclear orientation and nuclear cooling experiments in Oxford and Helsinki. Part 3. Progress from 1975 to 2001' in NR 2003 vol 57 pp 331 - 344
The Royal Society Fellows Directory, Professor George Pickett FRS, [URL: https://royalsociety.org/people/george-pickett-12096/; last accessed: 19/02/2025]
Telegraph Obituaries, 'George Pickett, physicist whose team achieved the lowest temperature ever recorded', 13 August 2024, [URL: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2024/08/13/prof-george-pickett-physics-lowest-temperature-obituary/?msockid=2a73f819c5b260c62463eb95c44961c3; last accessed: 19/02/2025]
Lancaster Guardian, George Pickett Obituary, [URL: https://www.legacy.com/uk/obituaries/lancasterguardian-uk/name/george-pickett-obituary?id=55790564; last accessed: 19/02/2025]
CodeNA5885
Archives associated with this Fellow
RefNoTitleDate
EC/1997/24Pickett, George Richard: certificate of election to the Royal Society
IM/003584Pickett, George Richard1997
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