Harold Hopkins (physicist)
British physicist
Harold Horace Hopkins FRS (6 December 1918 – 22 October 1994) was a British physicist. His Wave Theory of Aberrations (published by Oxford University Press, 1950) helped provide the mathematical analysis enabling the use of computers to create high-quality lenses. In addition to his theoretical work, his many inventions led to daily use worldwide. These include zoom lenses, coherent fibre-optics, and rod-lens endoscopes, which were used in keyhole surgery. He was the recipient of many awards and was twice nominated for a Nobel Prize.
Biography
Hopkins was born into a poor family in the slums of Leicester in 1918. Due to his work and the support of his family and teachers, he obtained one of two scholarships in Leicestershire, enabling him to attend The Gateway Grammar School. There, he was said to have excelled in the arts, English, History and languages.
He studied physics and mathematics at University College, Leicester, graduated in 1939 with a first, and then began a PhD in nuclear physics in the Department of Physics (now the School of Physics and Astronomy). However, the pursuit of his degree was cancelled on the outbreak of war, and he went to work for Taylor, Taylor & Hobson where he was introduced to optical design.
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This entry incorporates text from “Harold Hopkins (physicist)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.