Peter Atkins

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Peter William Atkins

Born August 10, 1940 (1940-08-10) (age 68)
Amersham, Buckinghamshire, England
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 MCR 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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[edit] 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 spectroscopy, 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. He is one of the patrons of the Oxford University Scientific Society.

[edit] Religion

Atkins is a well-known atheist and supporter of many of Richard Dawkins' ideas.[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], Rabbi Shmuley Boteach.[5] and Richard Swinburne. He was the first 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 is known for his use of sharp language in criticising religion: he 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] He appeared on a television panel about science and religion with Dawkins and Swinburne. When the latter tried to explain Holocaust as a God's way of giving Jews the opportunity to be brave and noble, Atkins muttered: "May you rot in hell".[8]

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".[9]

[edit] Publications

[edit] See also

[edit] Footnotes

  1. ^ "Beyond Belief: Enlightenment 2 - Peter Atkins". The Science Network. http://thesciencenetwork.org/BeyondBelief2/watch/atkins.php. Retrieved on 2008-04-05. 
  2. ^ Video of March 2007 debate with Alister McGrath
  3. ^ Atkins, Peter. "Who Really Works Hardest to Banish Ignorance?". Council for Secular Humanism. http://www.secularhumanism.org/index.php?section=library&page=atkins_18_2. Retrieved on 2008-03-22. 
  4. ^ Transcript of debate with theist William Lane Craig
  5. ^ Rabbi Shmuley Boteach
  6. ^ The Trouble with Atheism, UK Channel 4 TV Documentary. 2006-12-18. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The+Trouble+with+Atheism. 
  7. ^ ‘Expelled’ documentary explores Darwin, Intelligent Design, religion debate
  8. ^ Richard Dawkins, ""The God Delusion"", p. 64
  9. ^ Review: God's Undertaker by John Lennox | Books | The Guardian

[edit] Sources

  • Who's Who in the World, 21st edition.
  • Debrett's People of Today. Debrett's Peerage Ltd., 2006.
  • Contemporary Authors Online, Gale, 2006.

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Atkins"
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