John Pethica

Sir John Pethica FRS FREng
Chief Scientific Adviser, National Physical Laboratory
In office 2007–2017
SFI Research Professor and Professor of Physics, Trinity College, Dublin
In office 2001–2018
Professor of Materials Science, University of Oxford
In office 1996–2001
Personal details
Born	John Bernard Pethica 1953 (age 71–72)

Sir John Bernard Pethica (born 1953) is a British chemist and Science Foundation Ireland (S.F.I.) professor of material science at Trinity College, Dublin, Chief Scientific Advisor at the UK's National Physical Laboratory, and a visiting professor at Oxford University. Pethica is most noted for his work on the development of nanoindentation and atom resolution atomic force microscopy.

Education

John Pethica was a pupil at St Ambrose College, Trafford, Manchester. He graduated from the University of Cambridge with a B.A., and also received a PhD from the same college in Physics during the late 1970s.

Career

Pethica was a scientist employed at Brown, Boveri & Cie in Switzerland from 1980-1982. After this he held the position of Fellow at the University of Cambridge from 1983 to 1987. He became a lecturer at The University of Oxford in 1996, subsequently assuming the role of Professor of Materials Science.

In 2001, Pethica was one of the first ten people awarded an S.F.I. principal investigator award. Following the award, he transferred his activities from Oxford to Dublin, becoming an SFI Research Professor in Trinity College Dublin.

In February 2005, it was announced that Pethica will be the director of the Naughton Institute which will house CRANN, a new purpose built nanotechnology centre in Trinity College Dublin.

In October 2007, Pethica was made the Chief Scientific Advisor at the UK's National Physical Laboratory, the UK’s National Measurement Institute.

Honours and awards

In 1999, Pethica was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS). He has also served as Vice-President and Physical Secretary of the Royal Society. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering (FREng) in 2013. He was elected an He was elected an honorary fellow of both Trinity College Dublin (in 2011) and St Cross College, Oxford (in 2014).

Pethica was awarded the Rosenhain Medal & Prize from the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining in 1997. He was the 2001 recipient of the Hughes Medal of the Royal Society of London, and the 2002 recipient of the Holweck Prize from the Institute of Physics.

Pethica was knighted in the 2014 Birthday Honours for services to science.

Personal life

Pethica is a musician – playing violin and other instruments – with a particular interest in Irish and British folk music.

External links

• Homepage of John Pethica at Oxford
• Homepage of John Pethica at CRANN
• Chief Scientific Advisor : National Physical Laboratory