Timothy Softley

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to navigation Jump to search

Timothy Softley
File:Timothy Softley Royal Society.jpg
Softley in 2018
EducationThe Hewett School[4]
Alma materUniversity of Oxford
University of Southampton[5]
AwardsCorday Morgan Medal (1994)[1]
Royal Society University Research Fellowship[when?]
Harkness Fellowship[when?]
Scientific career
FieldsChemical physics
InstitutionsUniversity of Birmingham
University of Oxford
Stanford University
University of Cambridge
ThesisInfrared predissociation spectroscopy of diatomic atoms (1984)
Doctoral advisorAlan Carrington[1]
Doctoral students
Websiteresearch.birmingham.ac.uk/portal/en/persons/timothy-softley(67763980-12d3-457a-91af-252836d2661f).html

Timothy Peter Softley is a British scientist who is Pro-vice-chancellor (PVC) for research and knowledge transfer at the University of Birmingham.[6][7][8]

Education

[edit | edit source]

Softley was educated at The Hewett School in Norwich and Wadham College, Oxford.[4] He moved to the University of Southampton to complete a PhD supervised by Alan Carrington in 1984.[1][5] From 1986 to 1987 Softley worked as a post doctoral researcher in the group of Richard Zare at the Stanford University.[9]

Career and research

[edit | edit source]

Softley is distinguished for his advances in two areas of Chemical Physics.[1] First, the study of atoms and molecules in highly excited quantum states, known as Rydberg states.[1] He has used his understanding of their properties, gained from laser spectroscopy and theory, to develop new applications including the study of model charge-transfer processes at solid-gas interfaces.[1] Second, he has pioneered unique experiments utilising combinations of novel physical devices for making cold atoms, molecules and ions, for studying the kinetics and dynamics of chemical processes at ultralow temperatures – close to the absolute zero of temperature – where quantum effects determine the reactivity.[1]

Much of his work was conducted in a twenty five-year period at Merton College, Oxford, where he served as head of the Department of Chemistry, University of Oxford from 2011 to 2015.[1] His former doctoral students include Helen H. Fielding.[2]

Awards and honours

[edit | edit source]

Softley was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 2018 for substantial contribution to the improvement of natural knowledge.[1] He is also a Fellow of the Institute of Physics (FInstP) and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (FRSC). He was also awarded a Royal Society University Research Fellow (URF) at the University of Cambridge,[when?] held a Harkness Fellowship at Stanford University[1][5] and was awarded the Corday Morgan Medal in 1994.[1]

References

[edit | edit source]
  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value). One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from the royalsociety.org website where:

    "All text published under the heading 'Biography' on Fellow profile pages is available under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License." --Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).

  2. ^ a b Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
  3. ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
  4. ^ a b Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value). (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  5. ^ a b c Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
  6. ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
  7. ^ Timothy Softley publications from Europe PubMed Central
  8. ^ ORCID {{#property:P496}}
  9. ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).

 This article incorporates text available under the CC BY 4.0 license.

Lua error in Module:Authority_control at line 153: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value).