Congratulations to our Emeritus Professors Tim Jones and Chris Michael who were announced yesterday as newly-elected Fellows of the Learned Society of Wales.
The full list of fellows and the LSW news piece can be accessed here.
Professor Tim Jones is a Theoretical physicist, educated at Oxford (BA, MA, DPhil), and worked at the universities of Sussex, Michigan and Colorado, and the Rutherford and CERN Laboratories, before joining UoL in 1985, becoming head of Theoretical Physics in 2004. His research focuses on the calculation of radiative corrections in Quantum Field Theory, in particular working at high loop order requiring control over many individual contributions. He famously performed the first higher-loop calculation in non-abelian gauge theories; the result is now in textbooks and is an essential input for precision Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) calculations. He also developed a calculational technique known as dimensional reduction, used in supersymmetric theories to derive many important results.
Professor Chris Michael is a Theoretical physicist, educated at Oxford (BA, DPhil), and worked at the Rutherford Laboratory, and as a Fellow then staff member at CERN, before joining UoL in 1974. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Physics since 1980. His research interests are hadron physics and lattice QCD, where he played a leading role in the highly successful multi-institution UKQCD collaboration pioneering the use of high-performance computing in theoretical physics and making important contributions in a range of topics including the study of glueballs and excited mesons, as well as innovations in data analysis techniques. He became head of Theoretical Physics in 1973 and was Head of Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics 1983/88.
The LSW was formed in 2010 and Professor Simon Hands has been a Fellow since 2013.
On yesterday’s announcement, Professor Hands said 'I’m delighted that the Learned Society has recognised two such distinguished theoretical physicists, who will surely have much to contribute. It’s also great to see the strengthening connection with the University of Liverpool among the Fellowship’
The Learned Society of Wales was set up in 2010 to recognise and represents excellence and promote scholarship and research, wherever it is found in Wales while appreciating the national and global dimension. The Society has a responsibility to help build the capacity of academics, practitioners and policymakers in their disciplines, and to work in collaboration with other professional societies and institutions.
Election to Fellowship is a public recognition of academic excellence. The Society harnesses the expertise of the Fellowship with the explicit purpose of promoting greater awareness of how the sciences and the arts, humanities and social sciences benefit society. Over these initial years, the Society has conducted an effective and stimulating programme of activities that have benefited Welsh scholarship and Welsh life in general.
Unlike other national academies, we represent all disciplines and provide a cross-disciplinary forum for sharing and debating knowledge and making it available to other sectors including schools, the public, and policy-makers.
Enhancing the Society’s footprint and having a presence across Wales was important in order for the Society to claim itself as Wales’s first national academy. Furthermore, it was important too, that the Society championed the Welsh studies (the study of Wales) and Welsh language. The aim is that
landscape and natural heritage provide an important part of developing a ‘sense of identity, confidence and wellbeing which will help enable young people to flourish in learning, life and work’.
Although relatively new, the Society has already enjoyed considerable success.
In a relatively short period of time, the Society has emerged as a significant and respected institution that plays a leading role in the intellectual and public life of the country. It has secured recognition within the higher education and government sectors in Wales. It secured the agreement of His Royal Highness, The Prince of Wales, to serve as the Society’s Royal Patron, and in 2015 was awarded its own Royal Charter.
Women comprise 13% of the Fellowship and yesterday’s announcement stated that over 50% of all new fellows were women. The Society harnesses the expertise of the Fellowship with the explicit purpose of promoting greater awareness of how the sciences and the arts, humanities and social sciences benefit society.