Professor Tom McLeish
Colleagues will be sorry to learn of the death, on 27 February 2023, of Professor Tom McLeish, former Professor of Polymer Physics.
After gaining his PhD in polymer physics from the University of Cambridge in 1987, Tom took an ICI Research Fellowship at the Cavendish Laboratories before moving to the University of Sheffield as an early career lecturer in 1989. In 1993 Tom was appointed Professor of Polymer Physics in the School of Physics and Astronomy at Leeds, where he became head of the Polymer and Complex Fluids group. He was a world leading theoretician in the field of Soft Matter Physics, and was also internationally recognised for his interdisciplinary work combining science, theology and the creative arts.
During his time at Leeds he was instrumental in creating and maintaining interdisciplinary research across the University and beyond. In 1998 he instigated the Leeds Life Science Interface to promote discussions between physical scientists and life scientists working at Leeds, and he used this platform to encourage UK research councils towards joint funding across the sciences. Tom left the University of Leeds in 2008 when he was appointed Pro- Vice-Chancellor for Research at Durham University, a post he held until 2014 and in 2018 he moved to the University of York to take up the newly created Chair in Natural Philosophy in the Department of Physics
The memorial thanksgiving service is being held on 27 April 2023 and will be livestreamed on Youtube on the York Minster official site. Arrangements have been made to fly the flag on the Parkinson Building at half-mast in his memory.
Posted in: Obituaries