Brian Flowers, Baron Flowers

Brian Hilton Flowers, Baron Flowers FRS (born 13 September 1924) is a British physicist and academican.

The son of Reverend Harold Joseph Flowers, he was educated at Bishop Gore Grammar School in Swansea and at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, where he graduated with a Master of Arts. Flowers was further educated at the University of Birmingham, where he gained a Doctor of Science degree.

Flowers worked on the Anglo-Canadian Atomic Energy Project Tube Alloys from 1944 to 1946, he researched in nuclear physics and atomic energy at the Atomic Energy Research Establishment (AERE) from 1946 to 1950 and was member of the department of mathematical physics at the University of Birmingham from 1950 to 1952. In 1952, he became the head of the theoretical physics division at AERE, holding this post until 1958. At the University of Manchester, Flowers was Professor of theoretical physics from 1958 to 1961, Langworthy Professor of physics from 1961 to 1972 as well as chairman of the Science Research Council from 1967 to 1973. At the University of London, he was rector of Imperial College London from 1973 to 1985 and finally vice-chancellor from 1985 to 1990. Between 1994 and 2001, he was chancellor of the University of Manchester.

Flowers was chair of the Computer Board for Universities and Research Council from 1966 to 1970, member of the Atomic Energy Authority from 1971 to 1981 and president of the Institute of Physics from 1972 to 1974. He was further chair of the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution from 1973 to 1976, president of the European Science Foundation from 1974 to 1980 and president of the National Society for Clean Air from 1977 to 1979. Between 1978 and 1981, Flowers was chair of the Commission on Energy and the Environment, between 1979 and 1980, of the University of London Working Party on future of medical and dental teaching resources and between 1983 and 1985, of the Committee of Vice-Chancellors and Principals. He was also a member of the council of the Academia Europaea from 1988 to 1991, governor of the University of Middlesex from 1992 to 2001 and chair of the Committee of Enquiry into the Academic Year in 1992 and 1993. For the Royal Postgraduate Medical School, he was member of the council and vice-chairman from 1990 to 1997. Between 1991 and 1995, Flowers was member of the Management Board of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and between 1994 and 1995, its chairman. For the Nuffield Foundation he was managing trustee from 1982 to 1998 and chairman from 1987 to 1998. Since 1998, he is vice-chairman of the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology (POST).

Knighted in 1969, he was made a life peer with the title Baron Flowers, of Queen's Gate in the City of Westminster on 20 February 1979. In 1961, he was appointed a Fellow of the Royal Society and in 1981, an Officer of the French Légion d'honneur.

Since 1951, he has been married to Mary Frances Behrens and has two stepsons.

Works

*"Properties of Matter" (1970)
*"An Introduction to Numerical Methods C++" (1995)

References

*cite web | url= http://www.dodonline.co.uk/engine.asp?lev1=4&lev2=38&menu=81&biog=y&id=26992| title= DodOnline| accessdate= 2007-02-08