John H.D. Eland appointed honorary doctor
Professor John H.D. Eland from Oxford University appointed honorary doctor at the Faculty of Science.
John H.D. Eland is well known for his pioneering efforts in the development of coincidence methods in atomic and molecular physics and he has for a long time worked closely with researchers at the University of Gothenburg. In connection with his retirement in 2006, two coincidence instruments were transferred to Sweden, which now constitutes an important part of the infrastructure for atomic and molecular physics at the Department of Physics.
John H.D. Eland was surprised, pleased and highly honored by the appointment. “I had no idea this was coming until the phone rang and the Dean of the Faculty gave me the news.”
John H.D. Eland has been a regular visitor to the Department of Physics and between 2015 and 2018, he has been guest professor at the department. The collaboration has resulted in several doctoral theses, two new coincidence instruments used by several national and international universities.
“It has been a privilege and a pleasure to be able to interact and to collaborate with Swedish scientists over many years, in fact over almost half a century, and this is a most happy culmination”, says John H.D. Eland.
John H.D. Eland explains that the physics of atoms and molecules is a rather mature field, not half as new and hot as, for instance, elementary particles, cosmology or exo-planetary science.
“Nevertheless, there is still much to learn and to do, and our work impinges surprisingly closely on those forefront fields. I hope to continue to contribute to those endeavors with measurements and analysis, but most of all I hope to continue to innovate by developing new experimental techniques to answer questions on which up to now we have only theories.”
Professor Raimund Feifel will be hosting John H.D. Eland during the conferment ceremony on 18 October. Professor Hans Linderholm from the Department of Earth Sciences will be presenting the honorary doctor.