Cottrell, Alan

Most treatments, even when intended for materials scientists, of these competing forms of quantum-mechanical simplification are written in terms accessible only to mathematical physicists. Fortunately, a few translators , following in the tradition of William Hume-Rothery, have explained the essentials of the various approaches in simple terms, notably David Pettifor and Alan Cottrell (e.g., Cottrell 1998), from whom the formulation at the end of the preceding paragraph has been borrowed. 

As we saw in Chapter 3, the founding text of modern materials science was Frederick Seitz s The Modern Theory of Solids (1940) an updated version of this, also very influential in its day, was Charles Wert and Robb Thomson s Physies of Solids (1964). Alan Cottrell s Theoretical Structural Metallurgy appeared in 1948 (see Chapter 5) although devoted to metals, this book was in many ways a true precursor of materials science texts. Richard Weiss brought out Solid State Physics for Metallurgists in 1963. Several books such as Properties of Matter (1970), by Mendoza and Flowers, were on the borders of physics and materials science. Another key precursor book, still cited today, was Darken and Gurry s book. Physical Chemistry of Metals (1953), followed by Swalin s Thermodynamics of Solids. 

My thanks go first of all to Professor Sir Alan Cottrell, metallurgist, my friend and mentor for more than half a century, who has given me sage advice almost since I emerged from swaddling clothes. He has also very kindly read this book in typescript and offered his comments, helpful as always. 

Dr. Frederick Seitz, doyen of solid-state physicists, has given me much helpful information, about the history of semiconductors in particular, and has provided an invaluable exemplar (as has Sir Alan Cottrell) of what a scientist can achieve in retirement. 

These free electrons give sodium and the other metals their high electrical conductivity. Pump in an electron at one end of a metal wire, and another electron from an almost identical orbital pops out at the other end. The delocalized electrons of the metallic bond ensure that little energy is required for this process, making metals highly conductive and the preferred material for power lines. It also led the renowned materials scientist Sir Alan Cottrell to propose a new definition of a metal Metals, he wrote in a 1960 article, contain free electrons. ... 

Figure 1. Gibbs free energy per molecule of O2 versus temperature for reduction of transition metal oxides with gaseous reductants. (From Alan Cottrell, An Introduction to Metallurgy, 2nd ed., Edward Arnold Publishers, London, 1975, Fig. 7.1, with permission.)...

The decisive argument came in a paper of August 1958, written by Alan Cottrell (then the Deputy Head of Metallurgy at Harwell), summarising the results of the various research programmes that had been set into motion as a result of the accident ... 

Sir Alan Howard Cottrell (1919-2012) was a metallurgist and physicist. He worked at Harwell from 1955-1958. He later became Chief Scientific Advisor to the Government from 1971-1974. He was Master of Jesus College Cambridge from 1973-1986, and Vice Chancellor of the University from 1977-1979. 

The question of safety weighed heavily in reaching this decision, and account must he taken of the douhts about the safety of the LWR which had been expressed by Sir Alan Cottrell, who was a leading metallurgist, as well as by Lord Hinton, the former Chairman of the CEGB, and the Select Committee on Science and... 

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