Christopher Grigson

Christopher William Baisely "Grig" Grigson (1 December 1926 - 19 February 2001) was a British naval architect and electronics engineer who is credited with the invention of scanning electron diffraction.^[1]

Early life and education

Grigson was born in Hoshangabad, India to Sir Wilfrid Grigson, Deputy Commissioner of the Central Provinces and Berar, and his wife, Lady Phyllis Grigson.^[1] Grigson and his sister Claudia (who later married Henry Chilver) were both educated at a prep school in Sussex. While visiting his uncle and aunt in Cambridge he became ill with osteomyelitis of the hip, which left him bedridden for two years.^[1] Unable to leave, he was brought up by his uncle and aunt, and in 1946 won a place to study mechanical science at Trinity College, Cambridge. Despite still being ill he gained Firsts in both the Part I and Part II mechanical science triposes.^[1] After his health improved he took a PhD in electronics at Cambridge.^[1]

Career

Grigson began to work at the university, becoming a demonstrator in 1953, and lecturer in 1957. During the 1950s he worked on the team of Charles Oatley developing the Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM), which is still used today.^[1] He became a Fellow of Trinity College in 1962, and in the same year married a Norwegian student at Bell School named Helle Bang. During a sabbatical year at Bell Laboratories in 1964-1965 he continued work on improving SEM technology.^[2] The scanning diffraction system that he developed for scanning transmission electron microscopes was known for many years as the "Grigson coil."^[2]

In 1968 he moved to Kristiansand, Norway to begin working at his father-in-law's naval firm, A/S Athene.^[1] He ran the company for several years from his father-in-law's death in 1974 until the company closed due to oil crises of the 1970s.^[2] After the business closed he worked as an independent consultant in hydrodynamics, including investigation of the sinking of the bulk ore carrier Derbyshire.^[2] In 1992 he and his family moved to Grimstad, and Grigson began lecturing at the University of Agder Engineering College, teaching hydrodynamics and basic physics.^[1][2] He published nearly 20 papers in the journal of the Royal Institution of Naval Architects before his death of cancer in Grimstad on 19 February 2001.^[1][2]

Grigson was a fellow of the Royal Institution of Naval Architects.

References