Everything about Peter Atkins totally explained
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 .
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, and later at
Lincoln College, Oxford, where he was a researcher and lecturer until his retirement in 2007.
Atkins married Judith Ann Kearton in 1964 and together they'd 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. 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. Atkins has also participated with debates with theists such as
Alister McGrath,
William Lane Craig and
Rabbi Shmuley Boteach.. 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's one, and so I don't believe that there's one. And I think that it's rather foolish that people do think that there's one."
Atkins also appeared in the controversial 2008 documentary, in which he told interviewer
Ben Stein that religion was 'a fantasy', and 'particularly empty of any explanatory content. It is also evil.'
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".
Publications
Books by Peter Atkins
Footnotes
Sources
Who's Who in the World, 21st edition.
Debrett's People of Today. Debrett's Peerage Ltd., 2006.
Contemporary Authors Online, Gale, 2006.Further Information
Get more info on 'Peter Atkins'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://peter_atkins.totallyexplained.com">Peter Atkins Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
