Obituary of Jack Harris

Pugwash has lost a distinguished member in Jack Harris, who died at his home in Cam, Gloucestershire on February 3, 2009. Jack attended the 1995 Pugwash Conference in Hiroshima, held on the 50th anniversary of the dropping of the first atomic bomb, and became an influential member of the British Pugwash Group Executive Committee. He was offered the post of Secretary-General of International Pugwash in 2002, but he felt that the impact on his health would be too great, and with great reluctance withdrew. He was elected vice-chairman of British Pugwash from 2002 to 2008. He made an enormous contribution to discussions within British Pugwash, arguing with a gentle but forceful manner, and always allowing for a contrary view even when he was the only and acknowledged expert. He became especially vehement in defense of nuclear power.

He trained as a metallurgist at Birmingham University before joining the Central Electricity Board. He was seconded to Sheffield University for two years and then transferred to the Berkeley Nuclear Laboratories which carried out research related to the UK’s nuclear power programme. In 1965 Jack was appointed as leader of the work at Berkeley on the highly radioactive spent fuel rods from the nuclear reactors. His group, collaborating with the UKAEA, was largely responsible for solving some unforeseen problems that arose in the fuel rods of the first generation of reactors. In doing so he extended the life of the fuel rods well beyond their original design.

He was especially interested in metal corrosion and the distortion it produced in the fins that surrounded the nuclear fuel cladding and cracking of the steel bolts that maintained the integrity of the reactor cores. He received many academic honours, including the Doctor of Science from Birmingham, Fellowships of both the Royal Society and the Academy of Engineering, the Royal Society’s Esso Gold Medal for energy conservation, and an MBE. As a result of his work on corrosion he was made an honorary advisor on repairs at St. Paul’'s Cathedral and other historic buildings.

After taking early retirement in 1990 Jack held several visiting Professorships at Bristol, Oxford and Swansea, concerned especially with the ethics of scientific research. He became well known as an extraordinarily successful editor of Interdisciplinary Science Reviews, wrote a monthly piece for Materials World, and was responsible for articles on an immense diversity of topics elsewhere. He loved writing, and was engaged in an article on John Updike when he died.

The President of the Royal Society, Lord Rees of Ludlow, wrote “He was a fine example of the ‘activist’ and socially concerned scientist and we need more like him”. We shall miss him not just as a scientific colleague, but also for his kindness and his dry humour.

John Finney

Robert Hinde

Jack Harris: A nuclear scientist, he feared the spread of atomic weapons

The Guardian

Jack Harris: nuclear physicist and metallurgist

Times Online