Audrey Stuckes

Audrey Stuckes

William Waldegrave visiting the acoustic department at the University of Salford in 1981.jpg
Stuckes at the University of Salford in 1981
Born
Audrey Doris Stuckes

(1923-09-15)15 September 1923
Bristol, England
Died26 September 2006(2006-09-26) (aged 83)
Resting placeAltrincham Crematorium (ashes interred)
EducationColston's Girls' School, Montpelier, Bristol
Alma materNewnham College, University of Cambridge (1950 (1950): MA (Cantab), 1969 (1969): PhD)
Occupation
  • Research scientist in semiconductor physics
  • lecturer in thermal conductivity
AwardsPfeiffer scholarship
1942
Scientific career
Fields
Institutions

Audrey Doris Jones CPhys FInstP (néeStuckes /stuːks/ (listen); 15 September 1923 – 26 September 2006) was an English material scientist and a senior lecturer in the department of applied acoustics at the University of Salford. She made important contributions to the theory of the Johnsen–Rahbek effect, the electrical and thermal conductivity of semiconducting materials, and the thermal resistance of building insulation. She was the only daughter of Frederick Stuckes, the general manager of a shipbroking firm, and was educated at Colston's Girls' School in Bristol. In 1942, she won a scholarship to study the Natural Sciences Tripos at Newnham College in the University of Cambridge.

Stuckes graduated in 1946 with a BA degree and joined Metropolitan-Vickers, Trafford, as a graduate trainee in the research department. From 1953, she published a series of papers on the thermal and electrical conductivity of various semiconducting materials. She proved the existence of the Johnsen‑Rahbek effect and proposed an electric circuit model to explain the data. In December 1962, she was elected a Fellow of the Institute of Physics, and in the following year, she left Metropolitan-Vickers to work as a lecturer in the department of pure and applied physics at the Royal College of Advanced Technology, Salford, that became the University of Salford in 1967.

In 1975, Stuckes, together with John Edwin Parrott, published a well-received textbook that reviewed the theory and experimental data on thermal conductivity in solids and semiconductors. By 1979, she was a senior lecturer in the department of applied acoustics at Salford, and in the following year, she was in charge of the department's heat laboratory. The laboratory was supported by grants from, amongst others, the Science and Engineering Research Council and the Building Research Establishment. These grants funded studies to investigate the efficiency of insulating materials. She led a team to obtain experimental data that would allow builders to calculate a standard level of insulation. In 1982, she presented a television programme for the Open University that demonstrated the usefulness of these simple models of thermal conduction. She retired from the university in September 1988 and died after a long illness at a nursing home in Urmston, Trafford.

Early life

Stuckes was born on 15September 1923 at Bristol, England, the only daughter of Frederick Stephen Stuckes and Beatrice May, néeCogan. They had married on 8January 1916 at StJohn the Baptist, Bedminster, Bristol. Her father worked for Bethell, Gwyn, and Company (Bethell Gwyn), at 11Baldwin Street, Bristol, a shipbroking firm dealing mainly with Australasian trade. During World War I, he volunteered as a sergeant in the 1/4th Battalion of the City of Bristol Rifles, and on 27June 1917, he was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Royal Warwickshire Regiment. He relinquished his commission on 22June 1918 after he became ill while on active service.

After the war, Stuckes' father returned to Bethell Gwyn, and in March 1953, he was elected president of the Bristol Steamship Owners' Association. He had been elected a fellow of the Institute of Chartered Shipbrokers in 1945, and in August 1953, he was elected chair of the Bristol section of the institute. In the 1950s, he was secretary to the Apsley Players, a musical quintet based in Bristol. In September 1956, he retired from Bethell Gwyn after forty-eight years of service.

Stuckes' elder brother, Jack Stephen, was educated at Merrywood Grammar School, Knowle, Bristol, and studied electrical engineering at the Merchant Venturers' Technical College, Bristol. During World War II, he was a corporal in No. 34 Service Flying Training School of the Royal Air Force, based at the Royal Canadian Air Force station Medicine Hat in Alberta, Canada. At the end of the war, he took a position as a cashier and wages clerk for Christy Brothers and Company, an engineering company based at Bower Ashton in south west Bristol, that was contracted to the North Somerset Electricity Supply Company.

Education

Colour photograph of the Grade II listed school building at Cheltenham Road, Montpelier, Bristol. The building is constructed from red bricks, with yellow brick and terracotta dressings, and a slate roof. The building is shown with three storeys and fourteen windows, facing a road with trees obscuring the view in the foreground.
Colston's Girls' School, Bristol, where Stuckes was educated

Stuckes was first educated at Merrywood primary school in Knowle, Bristol. In June 1934, she gained a foundational boarding scholarship to Red Maids' School, Westbury-on-Trym. She went on to study at Colston's Girls' School, Montpelier, Bristol, where, in July 1942, she passed her Higher School Certificate in natural sciences with a distinction in chemistry. She was offered a Pfeiffer scholarship at Bedford College, University of London, and awarded a Gamble scholarship by the school of £50 a year (equivalent to £2,500 in 2021), that was tenable at the universities of Oxford, Cambridge, London, and at the Royal Free Hospital for Women.

However, instead of taking up the scholarship at Bedford, Stuckes entered Newnham College in the University of Cambridge, to study the Natural Sciences Tripos. In 1946, she graduated with a BA degree, and in the same year, she was elected a student member of the Physical Society of London. In 1950, she was elected an associate of the Institute of Physics and awarded an MA by Cambridge.: 6  In 1969, she returned to Cambridge to complete a PhD, and subsequently, she was elected to the senate of the university.

Career

Monochrome photograph of William Waldegrave's visit to the heat laboratory at the University of Salford in 1981. Waldegrave is shown stood with Stuckes, the then head of the laboratory, and John Ashworth. They are photographed behind a table holding anechoic poly blocks.
Stuckes meeting William Waldegrave (left) and vice-chancellor John Ashworth (right), at the University of Salford's heat laboratory in 1981.

After leaving Cambridge, Stuckes joined Metropolitan-Vickers, Trafford, Greater Manchester, as a graduate trainee in the research department. Metropolitan-Vickers was a British heavy industrial firm, known for manufacturing electrical equipment and generators, street lighting, and electronics. The company had a relatively favourable attitude to placing graduate women in professional electrical engineering positions. For example, when Stuckes joined the company, Beryl Dent led the computation section and supervised the team who investigated the electrical and thermal properties of semiconductors.: 232 : 11  Stuckes collaborated with Dent on Stuckes' first published paper on the heating effects that occur when a current is passed through a semiconductor. Dent suggested methods to solve the equations and computed the numerical integrations.

From 1953, Stuckes published a series of papers on the thermal and electrical conductivity of various semiconducting materials. In one such paper, she investigated the electrostatic force between polished plates of a semiconductor and a metal when placed in contact and a voltage applied.: 183  The force is caused by the free charge that accumulates between the semiconductor and metal surfaces. This force, or attraction, is known as the Johnsen–Rahbek effect, and is proportional to the square of the applied voltage.: 59–60  Stuckes constructed a clutch that consisted of a plate of magnesium orthotitanate, a hard, ceramic semiconductor, that rubbed against a highly-polished steel plate.: 12  She proved the existence of the effect and proposed an electric circuit model to explain the data.: 59  She also found that abrasion at the contact surfaces caused the force to decrease as the number of operations increased.: 59–60 

On 4December 1962, Stuckes was elected a Fellow of the Institute of Physics,: 22  and in the following year, she left Metropolitan-Vickers to work as a lecturer in the department of pure and applied physics at the Royal College of Advanced Technology, Salford, that became the University of Salford in 1967.: 198  In 1975, Stuckes, together with John Edwin Parrott, published a textbook that reviewed the theory and experimental data on thermal conductivity in solids and semiconductors. Parrott was a scientist at the Aldermaston Court research laboratory of Associated Electrical Industries (the then holding company of Metropolitan-Vickers), and later, professor of physics at University of Wales, Cardiff. In 1956, he had obtained a PhD from the University of Reading on the thermal and thermoelectric properties of semiconductors. Paul Gustav Klemens, late professor of physics at the University of Connecticut, reviewed the book at the time of publication and stated that "[it] is most unique and valuable; the theoretical problem is very difficult, and nowhere is there such a good summary of the useful approximations and the salient results.": 61 

The builder is putting the material in an environment that is different from the one in which the conductivity has been measured.

Stuckes, 7 February 1980 edition of the New Scientist

By 1979, Stuckes was a senior lecturer in the department of applied acoustics at Salford, and in the following year, she was in charge of the department's heat laboratory. The laboratory was supported by grants from the Polymer Engineering Directorate and the Building Subcommittee (she was a member of this committee in 1982) of the Science and Engineering Research Council, and the Building Research Establishment in the Department of the Environment. These grants funded a study to investigate how moisture in cavity walls affects the surrounding insulation. At the time, no one knew the exact efficiency of standard polymeric insulating materials as data was based on material in "dry" condition. Stuckes led a team to obtain experimental data that would allow builders to calculate a standard level of insulation. The study concluded that heat transfer in buildings can be modelled adequately by simple, one-dimensional, steady state models.

In 1982, Stuckes presented a television programme for the Open University that demonstrated the usefulness of these simple models of thermal conduction. The programme was first broadcast on BBC One in the morning of 3May 1982 and formed part of the Open University's unit on heat transfer. She continued to publish research with Anthony Simpson, the current head of the thermal laboratory at Salford, on the thermal properties of building materials, and by May 1986, she was awarded Chartered Physicist status by the Institute of Physics. She retired from the university in September 1988.

Personal life and death

In retirement, Stuckes resided at 58 Carlton Road in Hale, Trafford. In October 1947, she had become engaged to Douglas Perrin Jones, the eldest son of William Henry Perrin Jones of Port Sunlight, Wirral. At the time of their engagement, Douglas was an electrical engineer in the research department at Metropolitan-Vickers.: 716  When they both worked there, he would assist in her research, including in 1953, an investigation into the heating effects that occur when a current is passed through a semiconductor. After their marriage at Bristol in 1949, she continued to use her maiden name in her academic life and scientific publications.

Douglas died on 15July 1995 and the funeral service was held at Altrincham Crematorium, Dunham Massey, on 21July 1995. Stuckes died after a long illness on 26 September 2006(2006-09-26) (aged 83), at Faversham Nursing Home, Urmston, Trafford. Her funeral service was held at the same crematorium on 3October 2006 and her ashes were later interred in the crematorium grounds.

Academic conferences

The following table contains academic conferences where Stuckes was known to have organised the conference and/or read a paper.

Table of academic conferences
Dates Conference Sponsor Location Notes Ref.
11 April – 13 April 1956 Meeting on semiconductors Physical Society of London and British Thomson-Houston British Thomson-Houston Research Laboratories, Rugby, Warwickshire, England Reginald Chasmar and Stuckes presented their paper on the measurement of the thermal conductivity of semiconductors.
29 August – 2 September 1960 International conference on semiconductor physics UNESCO and the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague, Czech Republic Reginald Chasmar, Eric Durham, and Stuckes presented their paper on the thermal and electrical properties of cadmium telluride and mercury telluride semiconductors. : 70 
10 July – 12 July 1961 Conference on thermoelectricity Institute of Physics University of Durham, Durham, England Stuckes presented her paper on measuring the thermal conductivity of semiconductors at high temperatures.
7 April – 10 April 1970 Second conference on the thermophysical properties of solids at high temperatures Solid-state physics sub-committee of the Institute of Physics, in collaboration with the British Ceramic Society and the Society of Chemical Industry United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority (now the headquarters of Sellafield Ltd), Risley, Warrington, England Stuckes was the organising scientific secretary. The topic of the conference was the thermodynamics and transport properties of high-temperature materials.: 4  The proceedings were reported in two issues of the International Journal of High Temperatures and Refractories. : 162 

Selected publications

Books

  • Parrott, John Edwin; Stuckes, Audrey Doris (1975). Goldsmid, Hiroshi Julian (ed.). Thermal conductivity of solids. Applied Physics. London: Pion Limited. pp. 1–157. ISBN 978-0-85086-047-4. OCLC 1594038. Retrieved 11 November 2022. 8th in the series on applied physics.

Academic papers

Electrical and thermal conductivity of semiconductors

Thermal conductivity of building materials

See also

Footnotes

  1. ^ Jack's wife, Georgina Winnifred, néeSquires, accompanied him to Medicine Hat but returned to England on 19November 1944, after the station had closed on 17November 1944.
  2. ^ The scholarship was granted in years when the Catherine Winkworth scholarship was not available.
  3. ^ See One-dimensional steady state heat transfer in the external links section for a video of the Open University programme presented by Stuckes.

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