Bas Pease

Rendel Sebastian Pease
Born November 2, 1922(1922-11-02)
Died October 17, 2004(2004-10-17) (aged 81)
Notable awards Fellow of the Royal Society (1977)

Rendel Sebastian "Bas" Pease FRS (1922- 17 October 2004)[1][2][3] was a British physicist.

Pease's father was the geneticist Michael Pease, son of Edward Reynolds Pease. His mother was Helen Bowen Wedgwood, daughter of Josiah Wedgwood IV. He was the great-great-great-great-grandson of the potter Josiah Wedgwood.

During WWII he joined RAF Bomber Command's Operational Research section, where he was the expert in charge of the use of a precision navigation system called G-H. Field-based, he advised on operational techniques to use the equipment most effectively. Notably, he helped No. 218 Squadron RAF in Operation Glimmer, a diversionary "attack" on D-Day that distracted and pinned-down German defences while the real attack occurring 200 miles to the east. His G-H-equipped bombers flew low, in tight circles, dropping window over radar transponder-equipped small ships, in order to deceive the German radars that they were the main invasion fleet.[4]

After the war he was director of the Culham Laboratory for Plasma Physics and Nuclear Fusion (1968–1981) and head of the British chapter of Pugwash (1988–2002).[5]

References

  1. ^ Watson, C. (2006). "Rendel Sebastian Pease. 2 November 1922 -- 17 October 2004: Elected FRS 17 March 1977". Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society 52: 285. doi:10.1098/rsbm.2006.0020.  edit
  2. ^ Peacock, N. J.; Christiansen, J. P. (2005). "Rendel Sebastian Pease". Physics Today 58 (6): 78. doi:10.1063/1.1996490.  edit
  3. ^ "Bas Pease | Times Online Obituary". The Times (London). 2004-10-26. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article498984.ece. Retrieved 2011-07-21. 
  4. ^ A Failure of Intelligence Bomber Command OR by Freeman Dyson
  5. ^ [http://www.pugwash.org/uk/documents/SEBASTIAN%20PEASEObit17.10.04.pdf "SEBASTIAN PEASE OBITUARY A pioneer and advocate of nuclear power, he passionately opposed nuclear weapons."]. http://www.pugwash.org/uk/documents/SEBASTIAN%20PEASEObit17.10.04.pdf. Retrieved 2011-07-21.