Derek Jackson (physicist)
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| Derek Jackson | |
| Born | 23 June 1906 |
|---|---|
| Died | 20 February 1982 (aged 75) Lausanne, Switzerland |
| Nationality |  British |
| Fields | spectroscopy |
| Alma mater | Trinity College, Cambridge |
Professor Derek Ainslie Jackson, FRS, DFC, AFC, OBE (23 June 1906 – 20 February 1982) was a spectroscopist.
Derek Jackson was one of the outstanding atomic physicists of his generation, but there was very little in his life that could be called conventional.
Son of a wealthy Welshman, Sir Charles Jackson, who was both a leading authority on antique silver and chairman of the News of the World, Jackson showed early promise in the field of spectroscopy under the guidance of Professor Lindemann (Lord Cherwell), making the first spectroscopic determination of a nuclear magnetic spin at the age of 22. MRI scanners used in medicine are based on this phenomenon.
His scientific research at Oxford did not, however, interfere with his other great passion – steeplechase riding – which led him from the foxhunting field to his first ride in the Grand National in 1935. (He rode in two more Nationals after the war, the last time when he was 40 years old.)
In the second world war Jackson distinguished himself in the RAF, making an important scientific contribution to Britain’s air defences and to the bomber offensive. He flew more than a thousand hours as a navigator, many of them in combat in night-fighters, with 604 (County of Middlesex) Squadron based at Middle Wallop. He was decorated with the DFC, AFC and OBE.
For the rest of his life Professor Jackson, appointed a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1947, lived as a tax exile in Ireland, France and Switzerland. He continued his spectroscopic work in France at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, and was made a Chevalier de la Legion d’Honneur.
Jackson had what might be called a colourful personal life. He was married six times, and also lived for three years with the half-sister of one of his wives. The others included a daughter of Augustus John, one of the Mitford sisters, a princess, and the notorious femme fatale Barbara Skelton.
By turns charming, belligerent, generous, provocative, Jackson was once described by an air vice marshal as "intensely intolerant of the second rate – and sometimes simply amusingly and outrageously intolerant". His ability to shock and amuse infuriated some of those with whom he came in contact. But it endeared to him to his many friends.
[edit] References
- Derek Ainslie Jackson (1906-1982): Some Recollections of a Great European Spectroscopist, B. Bleaney, Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London, Vol. 55, No. 2 (May, 2001), pp. 285-287
- Simon Courtauld, As I Was Going to St Ives, A biography of Derek Jackson (Michael Russell, 2007).
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