Leadbetter retires

Alan Leadbetter, Professor of Physical Chemistry, U. of Exeter, earned international reputation for his research in the thermodynamic properties of solids, the structures and dynamics of glasses, order disorder transitions and molecular rotations in crystals, and the structures and molecular dynamics of liquid crystals. As Associate Director, Head of Science Dept. and Head of Neutron Div. at the Rutherford Lab he oversaw the completion, commissioning and internationalization of the world's most powerful pulsed neutron source, ISIS. As Director of Daresbury Lab he helped to establish SRS as a leading X-ray synchrotron research facility. He retired from his position as British Director-Adjoint and Director of Science at the Inst. Laue Langevin in Grenoble in August, 1999. Over sixty colleagues gathered to honor him in October at a meeting organized by the Neutron Scattering Group of the Inst. of Physics and the Faraday Div. of the Royal Society of Chemistry, entitled Science, Facilities and Facilitating Science, that provided an overview of the current international status of research fields as diverse as physical chemistry, neutron scattering, synchrotron studies, and nuclear and particle physics.