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| Peter William Atkins | |
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| Born | August 10, 1940 Amersham, Buckinghamshire, England |
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| Residence | England |
| Citizenship | British |
| Nationality |  British |
| Fields | Physical chemistry |
| Institutions | University of California, Los Angeles Lincoln College, Oxford |
| Alma mater | University of Leicester |
| Doctoral advisor | Martyn Raymond Christian Symons |
| Doctoral students | Laurence Barron A.D. Wilson-Gordon |
| Known for | Academic level chemistry text books |
| Notable awards | RSC Meldola Medal |
| Religious stance | Atheist |
Peter William Atkins (born August 10, 1940) is an English chemist and a fellow and professor of chemistry at Lincoln College at the University of Oxford. He is a prolific writer of popular chemistry textbooks, including Physical Chemistry, Inorganic Chemistry and Molecular Quantum Mechanics, three of the world's most popular chemistry textbooks. Atkins' Physical Chemistry which he now co-writes with Julio de Paula of Haverford College, is in its 8th edition. In addition, Atkins' Molecular Quantum Mechanics is in its 4th. Atkins is also the author of a number of popular science works, including Atkins' Molecules and Galileo's Finger: The Ten Great Ideas of Science.
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Career
Peter Atkins left school at fifteen 'for private reasons' and took a job with Monsanto as a lab assistant. He studied for A-levels by himself but failed to take a place at Southampton University before gaining a place, following an interview, at University of Leicester at a week's notice.
Atkins studied chemistry at the University of Leicester, obtaining a bachelor's degree in chemistry, and - in 1964 - a Ph.D. for research into electron spin resonance, and other aspects of theoretical chemistry. In 1969, he won the Royal Society of Chemistry's Meldola Medal. Atkins then taught physical chemistry at the UCLA as a Harkness Fellow[1], and later at Lincoln College, Oxford, where he was a researcher and lecturer until his retirement in 2007.[1]
Atkins married Judith Ann Kearton in 1964 and together they had one daughter, Juliet Louise Tiffany (born 1970). The couple divorced in 1983. He later married fellow scientist Susan Greenfield (later Baroness Greenfield) in 1991. The couple divorced in 2005.
Atkins has lectured in quantum mechanics and quantum chemistry courses (up to graduate level) at the University of Oxford. He retired from lecturing at an Undergraduate level in December 2006.
Religion
Atkins is a well-known atheist and supporter of Richard Dawkins.[2] He has written and spoken on issues of humanism, atheism, and what he sees as the incompatibility between science and religion. According to Atkins, whereas religion scorns the power of human comprehension, science respects it.[3] Atkins has also participated with debates with theists such as Alister McGrath, William Lane Craig[4] and Rabbi Shmuley Boteach.[5] He is the Senior Member for the Oxford Secular Society and an Honorary Associate of the National Secular Society.
In December 2006, Atkins was featured in a UK television documentary on atheism called The Trouble with Atheism, presented by Rod Liddle. In that documentary Liddle asked Atkins to "Give me your views on the existence, or otherwise, of god." Atkins replied, "Well it's fairly straightforward: there isn't one. And there's no evidence for one, no reason to believe that there is one, and so I don't believe that there is one. And I think that it is rather foolish that people do think that there is one."[6]
Atkins also appeared in the controversial 2008 documentary Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed, in which he told interviewer Ben Stein that religion was 'a fantasy', and 'particularly empty of any explanatory content. It is also evil.'[7]
Criticism
In 2007, Atkins's position on religion was described by Colin Tudge in an article in The Guardian as being non-scientific. In the same article, Atkins was also described as being 'more hardline than Richard Dawkins', and of deliberately choosing to ignore Peter Medawar's famous adage that "Science is the art of the soluble".[8]
Publications
- Atkins, Peter (1993). Creation revisited. W.H.Freeman & Co Ltd. ISBN 0716745003.
- Atkins, Peter (2003). Atkins' Molecules. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521535360.
- Atkins, Peter (2004). Galileo's Finger: The Ten Great Ideas of Science. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0198609418.
- Atkins, Peter (2005). Molecular Quantum Mechanics. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0199274983.
- Atkins, Peter (2007). Four Laws That Drive the Universe. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0199232369.
Footnotes
- ^ "Beyond Belief: Enlightenment 2 - Peter Atkins". The Science Network. Retrieved on 2008-04-05.
- ^ Video of March 2007 debate with Alister McGrath
- ^ Atkins, Peter. "Who Really Works Hardest to Banish Ignorance?". Council for Secular Humanism. Retrieved on 2008-03-22.
- ^ Transcript of debate with theist William Lane Craig
- ^ Rabbi Shmuley Boteach
- ^ The Trouble with Atheism, UK Channel 4 TV Documentary. 2006-12-18.
- ^ ‘Expelled’ documentary explores Darwin, Intelligent Design, religion debate
- ^ Review: God's Undertaker by John Lennox | Books | The Guardian
Sources
- Who's Who in the World, 21st edition.
- Debrett's People of Today. Debrett's Peerage Ltd., 2006.
- Contemporary Authors Online, Gale, 2006.
External links
- Transcript of debate with theist William Lane Craig
- Articles by Peter Atkins — Infidels website
- Video of March 2007 debate with Alister McGrath
Wikipedia content modification information:
- This page was last modified on 19 August 2008, at 10:11.
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